• Home
  • About Us
  • Toolkit
  • Getting Finances Done
    • Hiring Advisors
    • Debt Management
    • Spending Plan
  • Insurance
    • Life Insurance
    • Health Insurance
    • Disability Insurance
    • Homeowners/Renters Insurance
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
  • Risk Tolerance Quiz

The Free Financial Advisor

You are here: Home / Archives for Budget

How To Find Money Management Success – Create a Dashboard

May 17, 2015 by Average Joe Leave a Comment

I just answered a question on Facebook about a recent podcast interview featuring some bill pay app creators. My interviewees had discussed just how difficult it can be to quickly and efficiently pay bills. “I don’t understand the problem these guys are presenting,” the poster said (I’m paraphrasing….). “I just go to my bank and use their bill pay app every other week. No problem.”

I wish it were that easy for everyone.

Let’s face it. Most of us have one big problem with our financial profile: we’re disorganized. After 16 years in the financial trenches, I’ve seen it far too often to think it’s anything other than a widespread problem. Most of us pay bills on sixteen different sites and have two old 401k plans with former employers, our current job’s plan AND different 529 plans for each child. It’s impossible to manage everything. I’d ask people with all of these different investments and bill paying problems how they juggle everything, and the answer I most often heard was, “I manage it very poorly.”

Yet moving investments to a single provider is a scary proposition. We’ve all heard of Bernie Madoff and don’t want to trust one person with our money. We also have all heard of diversification. Having different plans ensures that I won’t have all of my eggs in one basket.
So we have two problems: safety and diversification….and the fact that by having your assets spread out it’s impossible to track. How do we reconcile these two ideas?

It’s easier than you think.

dashboard

Could you drive a car with three different dashboards?

Think About Driving A Car

When you drive a car, do you have one set of gauges or several? Of course, you only have one set of gauges. It’d be impossible to drive if you had five different dashboards. Imagine! Yet, when you think about your car, it’s a diversified collection of inputs, all working independently. However, when you put it all together, these gauges make your car easier to drive. You get the right data at the appropriate time.
That’s what we’re looking for with money management success….we don’t want to get rid of diversification. Our goal is to create a single dashboard.

In Your Personal Life

There are three areas you should look at with your money:

– Budget and bill tracking. Budgets fail when you’re making decisions about spending without knowing where your money goes each month. Items like a mortgage or rent payment and grocery bills are easy to track, but how much do you spend each week on entertainment? If you don’t track your expenses, it’s difficult to project the future or find any money management success. The gauge you’re looking for to help with daily money management is an app like Mint or Yodlee, that will automatically track your expenses so when you’re planning next week’s expenses you know how you’ve spent money in the past.

For budgets, Mint will allow you to set up alerts so that you’re notified when going over budget categories. YNAB (paid subscription) will help you think differently about your budget and keeping every area in check. People who like the old-fashioned envelope system may be attracted to MVelopes, an automatic way of instituting envelope budgets so you don’t have cash sitting around your home.

– Investments. Many apps will help you track your investment life. In particular, Mint can create a pie chart of your overall diversification so you can easily make investment decisions. Companies like Jemstep allow investors to input their goals and then recommends investment shifts. FeeX will look at all of your investments across platforms and tell you how much you’re paying in fees….an important gauge to see when investing. Zillow has a cool app that will track any real estate properties you own. NVestly is a social media site that not only helps you see results across your whole portfolio, but also makes investing social (you can see others investment pies…but not the amounts of money they have in any investment). While each of these is different, using a couple of these apps can help you make better investment decisions without worrying about having too much money at a single brokerage account.

That said, brokerage houses all offer a diversified collection of investments through different companies. Just because your portfolio is housed as Fidelity, for example, doesn’t mean you have to have all Fidelity investments. They work with a wide range of providers….and you only have to visit one brokerage site to see everything. One dashboard but still diversification!

– Big Picture. You should be able to see how your net worth is growing at a glance. Mint and Yodlee, among others, will give you that quick at-a-glance overall picture.

With Your Business or Side Gig

If you’re self employed, you’re even more crunched for time. You have your personal books AND business metrics to track. As a fan of the excellent management book The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, I know that the keys to business success are in systems and data. How much data you have and how quickly you can use that data to your advantage are important. That means three things:

– Platform. If your business or side-gig project isn’t build on a solid footing, you’re hurting. A web presence built by experts like 1and1.com means that you won’t have to worry about the “bones” of your business being difficult for customers or employees to navigate.

– Reporting. Using your bank’s application to track inflows and outflows (as well as setting up a Mint or Yodlee account for your business) can help you stay on top of business expenditures and inflows. Ask your accountant about great business tracking apps and software that they recommend.

Overall

Staying diversified doesn’t mean having money scattered all over. By focusing on systems, building a dashboard, and reliable business help, you’ll find that you’re able to more quickly make financial decisions that move the needle. That’s how you build long-term wealth!

Photo: Steve Jurvetson

Filed Under: Featured, Investing, Planning, successful investing, Uncategorized Tagged With: apps, Budget, cash, finance, Money

Pay a Little Extra on Your Mortgage – What a Difference it Makes

July 2, 2013 by Stan Poores 10 Comments

Could you adjust your budget and pay a little bit more toward your mortgage every month? Perhaps you can save a small amount and make a lump sum payment once per year?

It might not seem like it, but paying a little bit extra can actually make quite a big difference over the length of your mortgage. It is possible to take years off the loan by simply paying a small amount more per month or making one extra payment per year. When you shorten your mortgage loan, you also end up saving thousands in interest rates over the years.

You might not feel like you can afford to pay extra money on your mortgage, but there are likely a few adjustments that you can make to your budget so that you can squeeze in more payments.

Paying Biweekly Rather Than Monthly

One strategy for paying more on your mortgage is to change your payments to biweekly rather than monthly. Instead of paying a monthly amount, you will pay half the monthly payment every two weeks. As there are 52 weeks per year, you will end up making 26 payments rather than 24 if you made two payments per month. However, you will not notice the difference to your monthly budget.

Make a Big Lump Sum Payment Every Year

Another way to reduce your mortgage is to make a single large payment from the amount that you owe. When you do this, it will be taken directly off the capital, which will mean that your mortgage term becomes shorter. For example, if you get a Christmas bonus at work you could use the amount to pay off some of your mortgage. By doing this, you can reduce your mortgage loan length by several years.

Round Up Your Payments

Why not round your mortgage payment to the nearest hundred? For example, if your monthly payment is £573.45, you could pay £600 instead. This will not affect your budget too much, but it will mean that you end up paying an extra £26.55 per month, which adds up to an extra £318.60 per year.

To find out more about how you can pay more on your mortgage, talk to a UK mortgage broker such as First Mortgage.

Photo: 401(k) 2013

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: Banking, Real Estate Tagged With: Budget, Financial services, mortgage, Mortgage loan, Payment

Gambling, Smoking and Other Fun Ways To Ruin Your Budget

June 4, 2013 by Stan Poores 14 Comments

Daniel Wesley is the founder and CEO of CreditLoan.com, a website that educates consumers about various personal finance issues. Among some of the topics discussed are bad credit loans, credit cards, auto financing, and many other credit and financial help issues. Connect with Daniel on Twitter and Google+. 

 

Paychecks never seem to go as far as you think they should and your piggy bank is looking pretty empty these days. Some of the choices you make every day could be hurting you financially. By identifying the extraneous items you’re spending money on and eliminating those purchases, you can make a significant difference to your finances over the course of a few months or a year. Here are five common spending habits that could be wrecking your budget:

 

5 Spending Habits Wrecking Your Budget

 

– Gambling 

It’s the thrill of a shot at winning it big, but whether it’s the lotto, casinos, or a work pool, you can waste a lot of money gambling. A few dollars here and there on scratch-off tickets when you fill up with gas start to add up quickly. Quit cold turkey, avoid situations where you might be tempted to gamble, or seek help if you think you might have an addiction. Think of it this way: you’re likely to make more money by investing than gambling it away.

 

– Smoking

 

Many people consider certain parts of their lifestyle a normal expense rather than a luxury, but cigarettes are expensive and costly to your overall health. Sit down and add up the amount you spend on cigarettes over the course of a week, month, and year. Many people will be shocked at the actual figure. Like gambling, there are ways to kick this habit. Stop on your own, seek a doctor’s assistance, or join a program. However you decide to eliminate this expense from your life, your body and wallet will thank you for it.

 

– Extraneous Spending on Beverages

 

Like most people, you probably look forward to a caffeinated pick-me-up at some point in the day, but consider how much you’re spending on extra beverages each month. From coffees in the morning to soft drinks when you’re out at dinner (which are usually the same price as a whole two-liter bottle at the store!), the cost of buying drinks at restaurants and convenience stores adds up fast. Find money-saving alternatives like refilling a sports bottle with water throughout the day or making your own coffee at home. However you work it out, if you stop buying beverages, you’ll save money at every meal.

 

– Eating Out

 

You might be surprised to learn that the average American spends approximately $2,500 per year eating away from home. Now multiply that number by the number of people in your household, and you’ll get a better idea of why eating out is not a smart move financially. This doesn’t mean you need to completely deprive yourself, but stick to going out for special occasions rather than a couple of times per week. Make more meals at home, and cook a variety of dishes to prevent boredom. Save (and use!) leftovers. Buy more store brands or stock up on items when they go on sale. Pack a lunch for work. All of these are great methods of cutting your food cost down considerably.

 

– Paying for Unnecessary Services

 

We often pay a lot for convenience, but how much of it is really necessary? Do you truly not have the time for some things, or do you simply not want to do them? If you make the effort to limit the services you pay for that you could actually do yourself, you’ll be shocked at how much you will save. Mow your own lawn. Clean your own pool and house. Change the oil in your vehicle yourself. Give yourself a pedicure. Learn how to groom your pet. It may not be as convenient, but the money you save will really add up.

 

Going On the Attack: Planning Your Future

 

Once you’ve identified and eliminated your bad spending habits, re-examine all of your monthly expenses and create a budget; the next time you go to the store, don’t allow yourself to spend money on things that will exceed that budget. Audit yourself and evaluate the true value of what you’re spending money on to find even more ways to cut back, whether it’s your cable package, your cell phone plan, or the magazines you subscribe to.

 

The last step is figuring out what to do with all the money you’re no longer throwing away. It probably goes without saying that the best thing to do is save. Having extra funds stored away is always a good idea; unforeseen expenses can quickly crumble your financial well-being, and having money saved away is the best way to protect yourself and your family.

 

Being mindful of your finances is important at every stage in life. Minimizing excess can be a difficult process, but cutting out unnecessary expenses can significantly ease financial pressure. Recognize your bad spending habits, find a way to eliminate them, and take steps to make better choices in the future. Your piggy bank will be filling up before you know it.

Photo: Stephanx80

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: Debt Management, Planning Tagged With: Budget, Credit history, finance, Gambling, Personal Finance, Twitter

Budget Nightmares: What Are You Doing At 2 A.M.?

December 17, 2012 by Average Joe 40 Comments

When I left The Citadel (go Bulldogs!) to attend Michigan State (go Spartans!), I said goodbye to a lucrative track and cross country scholarship. I felt bad, but the writing was on the proverbial wall. My coach had given me “one more year” to run better at the end of year one, and I promptly pulled a quadricep muscle early into the fall campaign. I’d been a guy they thought was a (quoting the coach), “Diamond in the rough” anyway. Turns out I was pretty much just rough.

Immediately, I had money problems. My parents couldn’t afford to pay for MSU. I had this general notion that financial aid would cover everything. Imagine my bitterness  when I found out that my dad made too much money to qualify for any need-based aid.  My loan package quickly swelled as my first course of action was to get through school quickly. When I realized what a mess these loans would be, I made the tough decision to become a part time student working three jobs.

Here’s how I made that decision:

During one of my money woes, I tuned in to my favorite late night money talk show hosts on the radio: a guy named Bruce Williams. He sounded like that knowledgeable grandfather who’d give you either an arm around your shoulder or a swift kick in the butt. Maybe listening to him was the idea behind our podcast….I don’t know.

One night, drowning in my own debt and hopeless money situation, I heard a woman call in to the show. She and her husband both worked hard, but they weren’t making ends meet. Bills continually piled up and their reserves dwindled.

“What are you doing at 2 a.m.?” Bruce asked.

The woman stuttered. “What do you mean? We’re sleeping!”

“Why are you sleeping at 2 a.m. when your bills are getting further and further behind?”

The woman quickly answered, “We need all the sleep we can get so we work well at our job in the morning.”

Bruce sighed. “So you’re saying you need your job worse than your house and car? Then why don’t you sell your house or car?”

“I can’t sell my house or my car. Then I wouldn’t have any place to live!”

“My point exactly,” he said. “So, if you like your house and your car, what are you doing at 2 a.m.?”

“What are you getting at? I can’t do more than I’m doing.”

The radio host laughed. He had this chuckle that always sounded a little sad. “What I’m getting at is that you have serious money problems, but you don’t want to change anything. If you’re serious about solving your money problems, you’ll get a night job too, or you’ll find ways to make more money at your day job.”

The woman quickly interjected, “We’re both at the top of our pay scale. That’s why we need to hold on to these jobs.”

“You aren’t listening,” Bruce said. It was one of the few times I’ve ever heard him turning angry on the show. “You can’t work like you do, eat like you do and sleep like you do AND expect something to change.”

Unbelievably, she ranted at him. “I can’t believe this. I call you for serious advice and all you do is blame my job, blame my house, and blame me. We’re doing everything we can do and it isn’t getting any better.”

…and she hung up on him!

Maybe she wasn’t listening, but I sure was. I became a substitute paper boy and redoubled my efforts to advertise my disc jockey service better. I went around to fraternity houses and spoke directly with the social chairmen. I made mixed tapes with some cassettes I had laying around and brought them with me (that dates me, huh? I’m glad I didn’t say reel-to-reel tapes….). Later, I found out that my tapes were a hit around the school. More than that, extra money started to trickle into my hands, and my view of my financial situation changed.

 

Here’s what I learned:

  1. I’m in charge of my financial destiny.
  2. Sleep is overrated when you’re in over your head.
  3. Financial planning is easy. It’s either an income problem or an expense problem. If you can’t fix one, you have to fix the other by default or the plan won’t work.

If you’re reading this because you’re in broke week (a term coined by my friend Michelle over at See Debt Run), you can either fix it once today and have to fix it again next month, or you can change your money earning skills or spending habits. For short term needs, you could borrow cash, but remember that this isn’t the final solution: it’s duct tape until you’re able to get on your feet.

While we’re talking about duct tape on your financial situation, how about a cool $100 cash or Amazon money? Would that help you avoid your long term plan for a few more days? Ha! Maybe you can use it to buy a radio that’ll change your life, too….

Enter our gigantic giveaway below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: budget tips, Cash Reserve, Debt Management Tagged With: Bruce Williams, Budget, Home, Money, money management, Personal Finance, radio talk show

So You Want to Manage Your Own Money?

September 4, 2012 by Average Joe 29 Comments

A friend texted me this morning.

“We should talk soon. Julie is coming around to the idea of us managing our own money.”

It seems easy, right? My initial reaction to my friend was, “That’s awesome!” because it is. There are few things more satisfying than achieving your financial dreams and knowing that you climbed the money management mountain yourself.

No “money-god” came down and did it for you.

You didn’t need the Powerball numbers.

You actually plotted a financial course and landed safely at your destination.

For my friend, and for you if you’re about to embark on this journey, there’s good news and bad news: the good news is that it isn’t difficult to manage your own money.

The bad news is that to effectively manage your own money you’ll need to be ready to face some fairly difficult tasks.

 

Two Types of People

 

When I was a professional advisor, I’d meet some smart people who wanted to jump into their own money management and wanted an expert with an opinion to look over their shoulder, hold them accountable, and make sure they didn’t miss any “I” dotting or “T” crossing.

…and then there were other, often equally-smart people who wanted to hand it over to me and have someone else take care of it for them.

Believe it or not, most advisors I knew preferred the latter type of client and loathed the first one. Someone questioning their motives? Someone asking “why are we doing it this way?” all the time? That’s preposterous!

But if you’re going to ever learn how to manage your own money, you’ll need to be the first type, not the latter.

The steps aren’t difficult:

 

The Steps to Managing Your Own Money

 

My kids are reading myths in school. In the story of Hercules, he faces a series of challenges to achieve is goal.

I look remarkably like the guy on top, but I’m a little paler and not quite as naked. And I have less hair.

You’ll have a series of gauntlets in your way too, if you want to manage your own money.

1) Write out your goals. I’m not talking about writing:

Retirement

College

New Boat

Fall Deeper in Love

Real goal writing has a specific time, dollar amount and vision attached.

I want to be able to live on $65,000 per year (in today’s dollars) by age 65 without having to work every day. With this money I’d like to: (here you write your bucket list, which should include visiting every NASCAR track in the country).

That’s a goal you can shoot for and be excited about (except for visiting the track at Pocono, which I thought was pretty overrated).

2) Next, you write out all the hurdles in your way.

– I have $25,000 in credit card debt (separate by interest rate, term, amount)

– I have to put two children through college

– I know nothing about money management

3) Then, you find one of the nearly bazillion financial calculators online (you can use our powerful little PlanWise calculator here on the site!) and figure out how much you need to save to reach your goal.

– I need to save $250 per month to reach my dream if I achieve an 8% return.

Armed with your money management return information, now you figure out how to come up with $250 per month.

– Tweak your budget

– Pay down debt

– Take on more work

4) Before investing, though, you have a big problem. You have to insure yourself against some of the huge “what if’s” out there for you and your family:

What if you die?

What if you are disabled?

What if you have a car accident?

You’ll need to create a will and evaluate insurances.

5) Finally, you begin the heavy task of research to find investments that have historically achieved 8%.

 

No Step is Difficult, You Just Shouldn’t Miss One

 

As you can see, when you take on the hard task and decide to manage your own money, getting it right will be difficult. Each area demands time and energy:

– Planning, milestones and tracking

– Budget, income advancement and debt reduction

– Insurance need projection and comparison analysis

– Estate planning

– Investment allocation, picking and monitoring

These are five basic money management steps, but each packs a punch!

 

I Don’t Mean To Imply You Can’t Do It

 

As soon as I finish this piece I’m calling my buddy and talking him through these points. Before he takes on the task, he should know how long the financial security road really is. Going in with your eyes wide open is half the battle if you plan to win the “manage your own money” game.

He can do it, and so can you!

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: money management, Planning, successful investing Tagged With: Budget, Debt, finance, Financial services, Insurance, Investment, manage your money, money management

The Twenty-Minute-a-Week Budget: A Busy Couple’s Best Friend

February 15, 2012 by Average Joe 21 Comments

There are few times when I feel closer to Cheryl than when we’re talking about money.

I’m not talking about the stereotypical “You spent how much on coffee?” discussion, either. I’m talking about the heart-to-heart sit down where you walk through your dreams, goals and daily expenses.




It’s during these times that we both get excited because we’re moving in a unified direction toward concrete goals.

In theory, it should be easy. Talks about money should come naturally to two people who love each other and share much of their daily existence. You and I both know that it isn’t easy. You have to grind it out, because there are so many other, less important discussions that crowd out money talks. Things like “what are you laying out for dinner” and “what are we doing Saturday” get in the way of “what do we want to do with our money to successfully plan the rest of our lives?”

I tend to agree with David Chilton, author of the financial planning book The Wealthy Barber.  Like him, when I read yet-another-blog-post about yet-another-budget-idea, I think “budgets are baloney.” Like him, I believe that people do what they have to do to make ends meet.

The problem is that we spend far more time planning the near end than the far end.

My personal story about why most budgets don’t work:

As a financial advisor, I’d work with people on their budget. We’d figure out how much the family should spend on dinners, travel and holidays. Everyone would leave the meeting happy, ready for the challenge. A couple weeks later when we’d meet again, I’d be disappointed that the budget hadn’t worked. The couple wasn’t able to stay within the confines of this well-laid roadmap.

At first, I blamed the couples I worked with. They weren’t trying hard enough. They were so focused on irrelevant stuff that they weren’t truly trying to make a difference in the one area of their life that could change literally everything about their existence: their daily spending, their children’s education and their retirement vision. Everything.

Then I realized that I wasn’t following the type of budget I was recommending, either.

Who was I fooling? Certainly not my wife and kids. Sure, we were saving some money for retirement and college, but we weren’t doing nearly as well as you’d think, based on the money we were making. We’d find a reason for another dinner out, a treat for the kids, maybe an expensive dessert. Just little things. Almost always forgettable.

It was depressing.

So, I searched for a better way. And, the good news, is that after lots of trial and error, I found a successful budget plan.

I use it. Many clients use it. It’s had an astounding success rate. I wish I’d kept track of the statistics. Sadly, I never thought about it in those terms at the time.

So, with the usual aplomb you expect here, this is my scientific assertion: “This budget works for tons of people, dude.”

The Premise

The real truth behind my budget plan is this: most couples don’t talk about money. That’s all that my budget tried to accomplish. Rather than writing down every penny or looking backward at expenses, this budget looks forward. We’re paying attention to last week’s expenses, but only so we don’t keep making horrible mistakes.

The truth in many families is that they operate like mine: one member of the team lives in a castle in fantasyland—while the other is focused on the bottom line. Often, it’s not even one person in fantasyland, but both partners are living only half of the truth. In my family it worked like this:

Daily expenses: Cheryl knows every penny and I’m in fantasyland

Investments and Planning: I know every penny and Cheryl is in fantasyland

At first, you may think, “This works for them! They’re delegating tasks that each of them are good at. This works.”

I don’t dispute that couples should delegate tasks. My budget allows for one member of the family to know the intricate details of their favorite area. The problem is that fights occur when the second partner has no clue what’s going on. I’m focused on our stock that tanked or the insurance application that’s been sitting on the table for four days (and Cheryl still hasn’t signed), while she can’t figure out why I’d go and fill the car up with gas when I work from home and never use it. We needed that money for other expenses this week, and now it’s spent and wasting away in the driveway.

So, all this budget does is accomplishes one single goal: it gets you talking about money.

You’ll be amazed by how transformative it is.

Early Budget Attempts

This is funny. Initially when I set out to design a “better budget,” I had this cerebral concept of a “family meeting”, but didn’t know how it would work. We chiseled this budget through trial and error. When you try my system—and I hope you try it–you’ll find areas that don’t work for you. Please write me about how you’ve adapted this budget to meet your own needs. I’m always happy to find another success story who’s taken this and melded it to their situation.

Cheryl and I decided to try out my meeting idea. We had lots of papers and stuff and we sat down on a Sunday afternoon.

Here’s a list of all the things that went wrong:

1) We felt like dorks. There was no agenda or plan, just a “meeting.” I realized nearly immediately that we’d actually need something to discuss during this time, or I’d just be staring at my lovely wife for an hour. I find that to be fun, but nothing gets done.

2) We meandered. Sometimes our budget talk became a “why is Nick not focusing on his math homework?” discussion. Not what we’re looking for.

3) Once we got rolling, the meeting ran really long and was sometimes contentious. I realized that it was awesome for a single meeting, but committing to that every week when we’re both driven and busy with daily tasks was impossible to ask.

4) We’d forget important papers. Sometimes we’d have the water bill and other times we’d have the 401k, but rarely did we have everything we needed to make informed decisions.

5) The meeting wagon often left without us. A month would go by without the meeting because life got in the way. Money disagreement weeds would crowd the nice budget tree we were growing.

Our Findings

1) The budget needed to include a data collection system. Chasing papers is frustrating and time consuming.

2) We needed a clear agenda so we didn’t just stare at each other.

3) It had to be a quick meeting. We set a goal of fifteen minutes. Usually we take twenty, but we’re still trying.

4) We’d have to focus not just on today’s meeting, but how we can improve the process. We’ve honed this process for over ten years now.

5) We acknowledge that we’ll fall off the wagon sometimes. It’s important to get right back on and keep moving.

The Budget

We use a basket like this near the door to collect all bills and investment statements.

1) Bills and investment statements go into a basket near the door. Cheryl likes to pay bills immediately when they arrive. Unfortunately, that didn’t work for our budget because the important part, talking about expenses, would be missed if she just paid it right away. We now pay bills weekly. Some of my clients that are paid monthly only pay bills once per month, but look at every bill weekly that’s arrived.

2) The meeting has a set time and day of the week. Ours is Sunday afternoon. This started when my kids were young enough that they’d nap, so we’d take care of the budget meeting during that time. Now we meet at that time out of habit. This has become one of my favorite times of the week.

3) Here’s the agenda:

  • Each person looks through every bill. Cheryl opens one and I open another. We look quickly through each bill and then pass it to the other person. In this way, each of us knows what every expense is that passes through the house! We’ve found so, so many mistakes on our bills that it’ll need to be a separate post. We’ve also discovered ways to lower our heating bills, water bills and cell phone packages, among others. Just because it’s right in front of us.
  • Each person looks through every investment and insurance statement. We ask questions about each one and either answer them or write them down.
  • We delegate responsibilities. Cheryl usually pays the bills (the part she likes to do) and I call the investment and insurance people. I also usually investigate changes to our cell plans or call about mistakes on the bill (the part I like to do).
  • We talk about big expenses coming up that week, month and year. The main reason for this part of the budget is that I can’t stand being surprised by major expenses like school clothing. Shopping bags at the entrance to our house have caused more fights in our marriage than any others.
  • We review the Mint expense summary (I’ve printed this off just before the meeting).

That’s it. Fifteen to twenty minutes per week and we’ve accomplished the following:

  • We both know what the bills are in our house and the investments.
  • We still focus on our areas of expertise and enjoyment
  • Major expenses all are discussed before they’re made

This budget has solved more fights among couples than any other system I’ve seen or created. It may be easy to rip holes in because it’s not very analytical or sophisticated, but it works. I think this is because it acknowledges that people are busy creatures, and if you have a career and family, any budget plan has to be flexible enough to keep up.

In the next few weeks I’ll begin digging into pieces of this plan. We’ll examine areas of the budget that we’ve been able to cut. We’ll talk about home improvements that can lower your expenses. We’ll talk about automating your household so that the twenty-minute-a-week budget is a reality.

Okay, that’s my story. Now it’s your turn: What problems do you run into with your budget? Are there tricks you use that successfully help you avoid “the money fight?”

Enhanced by Zemanta

Filed Under: budget tips, Debt Management, money management, Planning Tagged With: Budget, budget for busy people, David Chilton, Personal Finance, simple budget, Wealthy Barber

Search this site:

Sign up for emails from The Free Financial Advisor!

Recent Posts

  • What Can a Student’s Bank Account Say About Them?
  • 4 Easy Steps To Help How To Get Out Of Debt Quickly
  • Freelance Tips: 3 Personal Finance Tips Every Freelancer Should Know
  • How To Keep Money Worries From Keeping You Awake
  • My house and what brought me here

Partners

Real Estate Crowdfunding

private flood insurance

Copyright © 2019 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in