Comments on: Is Budgeting Keeping You Poor?

By: How to Get Out of Debt Fast | 23 Tips and Tools

How to Get Out of Debt Fast | 23 Tips and Tools — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 11:01:34 +0000

[...] How to Fix Your Budget | 7 Budgeting Pitfalls [...]

By: Morgan at TheDebtDance

Morgan at TheDebtDance — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:09:46 +0000

Great post. In my parent’s day they budgeted on a piece of notebook paper and kept household money in an envelope in the kitchen.
When they got money they spent money.
When they retired they had virtually nothing.
Today I think, as you mentioned, we have information overload. Somewhere between the piece of notebook paper and the programs calculating when you need to buy milk there must be the answer!
Thanks for the post.

By: DR

DR — Sat, 30 May 2009 19:56:00 +0000

Under the 60% solution, taxes are part of the 60%.

By: George Grahame

George Grahame — Sat, 30 May 2009 15:38:36 +0000

How on earth do you do a 60% budget on the gross? and 10% for the other 4 categories? what about all the unaccounted for taxes taken from your pay? What – just don’t pay them? So 60 + say, 20% taxes. Savings and future savings and fun on 20% of gross. Unless you’re making huge sums of money that seems a little difficult.

By: Dave

Dave — Mon, 11 May 2009 08:53:09 +0000

For me tracking my previous expenses helps make a better budget every month. For this, I use Billeo. It tracks your bills, acts as a password manager and saves receipts. Works for me.

By: Money Beagle

Money Beagle — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:01:23 +0000

The one that used to get me was the last one, forgetting periodic expenses. I would always forget those once-per-year type things such as license tab renewals, homeowners association fees, or roadside assistance renewals. After getting surprised once too often, I went through all of my expenses for an entire 12-month period, and identified these sorts of things. I started earmarking 1/12th every month so that they would no longer catch me. This has helped tremendously!

By: David Stillwagon

David Stillwagon — Wed, 06 May 2009 02:45:36 +0000

I really like the part about real time data. If you are over budget at the end of the month it is a little too late.

By: MoneyEnergy

MoneyEnergy — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:43:51 +0000

I hadn’t thought about how budgets can ruin your finances – at least, not in that way. I think budgets might work better (for me) as descriptive tools rather than prescriptive tools. It’s easier for me to keep track of what I spent the previous month, study it, then figure out what changes to make for the next month. If it’s a top-down, dogmatic approach though I don’t think it works with me. Ron’s story above is totally amazing.

Thanks for the article, it just gave me an idea for something that I need to post on.

By: Ryan @ SpendOnLife

Ryan @ SpendOnLife — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:48:22 +0000

Ron,

You are totally right about it depending on your income.

I think the most beneficial budgets are for people that make plenty to live on but have a hard time realizing they aren’t quite as “rich” as they think they are.

Enjoyed the post and different point of view than you normally see.

By: Ron@TheWisdomJournal

Ron@TheWisdomJournal — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:35:59 +0000

My CPA brother-in-law was an extreme budgeter back in the day. I saw him go off on his wife because she didn’t write down a single postage stamp purchase in their columnar pad. They were students back then and had almost nothing to live on. Their “splurge” was a 2 liter bottle of Coca-Cola once per week. Today, though, he’s worth tens of millions, having taken several companies public and wouldn’t know a household budget if it sat in his lap.

I think a lot of it depends on how much you’re making and the goals you have. Those with comfortable salaries don’t have to be as stringent as someone living on a fixed income.