Charting your financial future

[sv2007]

One thing I read a lot here is people keeping a budget. We used to do that, and still do for certain things.

When we used to keep weekly and monthly budgets, I find that they are good tools to project future savings; even better than regulating spendings.

What's your take?

[bjl584]

I don't keep a strict budget, but I am aware of how much I save, what my bills are, when those bills are due, and how much my average spending is.

[Nutria]

Monthly budget which is integrated into the (spreadsheet) check register.

"Cash management" might be a better term, since we don't have separate categories for clothing, movie tickets, computer doodads, etc: they go in "Other", which is a catch-all for typical categories that are highly variable.

The bottom line is that our budget is organized by date instead of by caegory.

[rennigade]

No...no need for us to chart a financial future in terms of budgeting.

I already know what I will be saving towards retirement. Whatever is left over after bills either goes into savings or taxable investments. I have a spreadsheet that tracks yearly progress/all accounts from jan 1 to dec 31 each year, how much each account grew, the percentage, how much percentage is savings/retirement/taxable, etc etc.

I also have a spreadsheet that is more basic and simply shows what all of my accounts total after each month, jan 1, feb 1, march 1, etc etc.

Oh...also keep track of all expenses via quicken.

There comes a point where you have to stop tracking things just for the sake of tracking things. Not only is it a waste of time but there is no benefit. When you get to the point where you are maxing as much as you can and still adding to your emergency fund and other taxable accounts...you can stop with the spreadsheet nonsense. Go spend some time with your significant other...take your pet for a walk....better yet go find a hobby. Its time to enjoy life.

[feh]

We track spending very carefully (via mint). And I certainly know how much income we have.

We do not follow a budget. We are frugal by nature, so over-spending has never been an issue.

[Nutria]

When you get to the point where you are maxing as much as you can and still adding to your emergency fund and other taxable accounts...you can stop with the spreadsheet nonsense.

Not all of us are there yet.

[disneysteve]

We do not follow a budget either. We are reasonably careful with our money, we always take care of funding our savings goals, and we earn enough that we have plenty of wiggle room in our cash flow so that if we have a month that is more expensive than others, there's enough of a cushion in our cash account to cover it. There's no reason to watch every penny or know exactly where every dollar is going.

Could we do better, spend less, and save more? Absolutely. To be honest, if it was just me alone, I'd be doing just that, but there are certain compromises that get made to keep the family happy.

[Nutria]

We do not follow a budget either. We are reasonably careful with our money, we always take care of funding our savings goals, and we earn enough that we have plenty of wiggle room in our cash flow so that if we have a month that is more expensive than others, there's enough of a cushion in our cash account to cover it. There's no reason to watch every penny or know exactly where every dollar is going.

Could we do better, spend less, and save more? Absolutely. To be honest, if it was just me alone, I'd be doing just that, but there are certain compromises that get made to keep the family happy.

Assumes that miserly is better than thrifty.

[greenskeeper]

I don't keep a strict budget, but I am aware of how much I save, what my bills are, when those bills are due, and how much my average spending is.

same here. My budget allows for at least $1000/mo of "float" money after all bills are paid. Most of the time the monthly surplus goes towards paying off the mortgage.

[phantom]

My husband and I have what we call a budget. But, it's mostly just numbers assigned to categories in Mint that are slightly higher than what we typically spend. This helps us to avoid unintentional spending increases and gives us numbers we can use in planning. It also helps us keep an eye out for unusual transactions that might be fraud.

The one place where we're pretty strict about following the budget is in our personal "lunch money" categories. Several years ago, we found we were each bothered by some of the spending the other did. Putting limits on that spending allowed us to relax.

I think being able to have a relaxed budget or no budget at all is something of a luxury afforded to those who have well ingrained spending habits and spend significantly less than they bring in.

[Nutria]

same here. My budget allows for at least $1000/mo of "float" money after all bills are paid. Most of the time the monthly surplus goes towards paying off the mortgage.

That's a "1% of the First World" problem...

[Jluke]

I have a spreadsheet for my budget broken down by month. Same format since 2006, but I've gotten away from adding in the details like I used to. Nice to know when the random newspaper, water and trash bills are coming.

Now I mainly track my savings and escrow accounts; and just began adding in my investment account values at the end of the year.

So far, my savings account is down 38k since January...

[disneysteve]

That's a "1% of the First World" problem...

It's very sad but probably true that having an extra $1,000 lying around puts you in a relatively small group in this country. About 62% of folks have less than $1,000 in savings (http://www.marketwatch.com/story/mos...ngs-2015-10-06). One survey showed that 47% couldn't pay an unexpected $400 expense. I can't imagine living that way, especially if you own a car, own a home, or have children. It doesn't take much of anything to rack up a $400 bill.

[kork13]

I don't keep a strict budget, but I am aware of how much I save, what my bills are, when those bills are due, and how much my average spending is.

This is pretty much how I run our "budget"... It's not a strict budget, but more of a planning tool that uses averages & estimates to keep my planning in the ballpark of "accurate".

I mostly use it to plan out how much we save each month, keep track of our regular monthly bills, and to forecast rough estimates for what (& when) other expenses will be paid, in order to make sure we keep enough in checking to pay them (we move most of our cash into savings & investments).

[tripods68]

We follow a zero based budgeting.

Income - Outgo = 0

It's an awesome way to track spending and savings. It's keeps us in-line all the time, debt free except the mortgage.