Many of us are looking to save money, or at least be more aware when we spend it. Budgets are great tools to guide spending, but if they’re too rigid, you won’t follow them. Try to see them like training wheels and you’re more likely to stay on track.
Photo by Jerry
The Simple Dollar explains why you shouldn’t view a budget as a lifelong burden:
Budgets are a tool to help you mould your normal behaviours into a set of more financially responsible behaviours, nothing more, nothing less. A budget succeeds when it becomes so transparent that you no longer actually need it, like a six year old who starts being able to fly along on her bicycle with both training wheels off the ground.
Whatever tools you choose to use to start budgeting, don’t get overwhelmed at the start.
The Secrets Behind Successful Budgeting [The Simple Dollar]
Comments
One response to “Think Of Budgets Like Training Wheels Rather Than Absolute Rules”
I use Pocketbook to track my money available for spending each month and to watch the proportions of my money that I spend on different things. In most cases, I don’t meet my savings target, but since it’s an aspirational target and it’s there to see how close I can get to it, not necessarily to meet it, each month, that’s fine. It’s a goal, and it’s interesting to track what derailed my plans to get to that goal each month.