Getting Started With a Budget
Using a budget is one of the smartest money management moves you could make. For guidance on using a paper & pencil system, read the Budget Quick Start Guide and make use of the Cash Flow Plan, Cash Flow Tracker, and Recommended Spending Guidelines, all found in the Resources section. For help using the online tool Mint.com, watch my tutorials here, here, and here. And for help with the Envelope system, read this article.
Remember, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.” – Proverbs 21:5
Sheila has long been an expert at living beneath her means. Even when she was making a relatively low salary and living in an expensive city, she never worried about not having enough. She always had money in the bank. Because she grew up as one of five kids with a stay-at-home mom and schoolteacher […]
How in-synch are you and your spouse when it comes to money? On a scale of 1-10, with 1 meaning you’re living on separate financial planets and 10 meaning you complete each other’s financial sentences, where on the scale would you put your marriage? Now do quick reality-check by asking your spouse the same question. […]
Using money well is one of those things we never get fully right. We’re constantly trying to make changes, improvements. And the bigger the change, the greater the challenge. That’s why I’ve been taking an in-depth look at the findings from Switch, Chip and Dan Heath’s excellent book on “How to Change Things When Change […]
Are you trying to make a positive change in your finances or some other area of your life? How clear are you about the change you’re trying to make? As Chip and Dan Heath researched Switch, their helpful book about what it takes to truly change something about our lives, they discovered several surprises. This […]
Weekly roundup of some of the best personal finance articles from around the web. How to spend your money for maximum happiness (Popular Science). The latest on what science tells us about the money/happiness connection. Here are creative ways to teach your kids about charity (CNBC). Good ideas for cultivating hearts of generosity in our […]
It’s easy to make managing money more complicated than it needs to be. That’s because money isn’t just an objective “means of exchange” as the dictionary defines it. Money is wrapped up in our emotions – our hopes, dreams, and fears. And our use of it is strongly influenced by the many messages of our […]
If a tool existed that would give you a strong sense of control over your finances and help keep your financial stress low, wouldn’t you use it? If this tool served as a financial road map, showing you clearly how you could live within your means, generously support the causes you care about, and save […]
Weekly roundup of some of the best personal finance articles from around the web. Only 1 in 4 Americans have made this essential retirement planning move (Fox Business). It’s free, relatively easy, and it will probably motivate you to save more. Here’s one of the easiest tools for the job. Half of America doesn’t check […]
Weekly roundup of some of the best personal finance articles from around the web. Investors have been making the same mistake for 300 years (The Atlantic). Sir Isaac Newton was quite a scientist, but he made a legendary investment mistake that’s still all too common today. Leaving a legacy: why everyone needs an estate plan […]
An endless number of studies have documented people’s general lack of financial preparedness for their later years. As just one example, the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) says that among workers age 55 and older, 49% have less than $250,000 saved for retirement (30% have less than $50,000). No amount of finger-wagging lectures seems to […]
