Evolving Personal Finance » Entries tagged with "budgeting"
Budgeting Is a Waste of Time
On a recent episode of The Truth about Money, Ric Edelman mentioned that one of the key principles of their financial advising practice is that “budgeting is a waste of time.” I really respect the financial advice I’ve heard on his radio show and read in his books, particularly their argument to keep your mortgage forever. Therefore, it was a little surprising to me to hear them say that such a bedrock principle of my … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting
Pulling Back the Veil on Our Daily Money Management
I thought it would be helpful for some to get really into the nitty-gritty of how we manage our money on a daily (or at least monthly) basis. It’s simple to say “we have joint accounts” or “we use Mint” but what does that really mean? (You can reference a copy of our current budget if you like.) Start with a Clean Slate On the first of the month the only money in our checking accounts is … Read entire article »
Filed under: budgeting, credit cards, found money, side income, spending, targeted savings
Taking Control of Our Grocery Spending
Last month we were way over our grocery spending and this month we are way, way over! Two months in a row is real red flag. This is such a big chunk of our budget that these large overages are affecting our bottom line – the only reason we’ve been in the black the last two month has been our yet-unincorporated cost-of-living raises from September. Looking back in Mint, it seems that our grocery spending … Read entire article »
Filed under: food
What Happens to Your Taxes If We Go Over the Fiscal Cliff?
I listed to Marketplace every day and have hear many pieces on the fiscal cliff aka taxmageddon. Basically, there are a bunch of federal tax cuts and spending increases that are set to expire at the end of 2012 if Congress doesn’t take any action. Since the legislature is apparently completely paralyzed during our ever-lengthening election season, we won’t know if the fiscal cliff will be partially or completely prevented probably until the lame duck … Read entire article »
Filed under: taxes
How to Make an Irregular Income as Regular as Possible
One of the clients I coached recently wanted to talk over how to handle his irregular income. He was having trouble sticking to his budget because he ran his own business and his income fluctuated month-to-month. I read a bunch of blog posts on the subject and my client found the strategies I suggested helpful, so I thought I would put all of it together in a blog post – with whiteboard drawings! Here’s what it … Read entire article »
Filed under: income
Budgeting, Tracking, or Neither?
I’ve added a new podcast to my rotation – Ric Edelman’s The Truth About Money. I don’t know how well-known RE is nationally, but he works in the area where my parents live so I’ve heard of him a few times. He has a totally different money philosophy than Dave Ramsey (low-interest debt is great!) so I started listening to it to safeguard against becoming brainwashed by DR. During last week’s show the hosts were discussing … Read entire article »
How Do You Decide How Much to Spend on Groceries?
It seems like a simple question, right? So far, how much we budget for groceries has been determined by how much we do/can spend on groceries. Last year we tried to cut back to $300/month on groceries but realized that was too low, so we reworked the rest of our budget to allow us up to $360/month. I’ve identified four factors that influence what food we buy: health cost sustainability convenience Right now those four factors have found an equilibrium and … Read entire article »
Filed under: food
First Major Travel Plans of 2012!
We just booked our first flights and RSVP’d to our first wedding in 2012! Both events are taking place in April. We’ve been quite light on travel in the last few months – we haven’t flown anywhere since last November – so this feels great. Our April is going to be quite busy! We have something major going on every weekend except one. March 29 – April 2: I’m traveling to Atlanta to be part of a … Read entire article »
Filed under: personal, targeted savings, travel
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