When I first got married moved out of the house for the first time I kept a strict budget I think following a budget for several years help me to more or less know now and retirement what I have and don’t have not have to watch it so closely. I highly recommend it for people and debt or those just starting out to actually see where your money goes or has gone.
Yes. It can be flexible, but creating a budget, tracking expenses and then adjusting as needed throughout the month lets us know if we are letting lifestyle creep take over.
I felt budgeting was necessary after we got married. It was a way to know what money we had to spend and what we had to save. Saving was vital to me and my wife, as I saw what happened to many retired folks that ran out of money, or did not have enough. We never spent more than we had, we just waited. So you might say I budgeted for 50 years, always insuring to save at the minimum, the equal match by any employer for our Traditional IRA. That was probably the BEST investment decision ever for us. After 50 years of budgeting, and with all 3 kids through College and married, I discarded the budget. Now I am in the reverse mode, speeding more than my income as we retired to Independent Living. The only reason I feel we have full confidence to be retired comfortably, is because we made saving via budgeting, a very high priority. Budgeting allowed us the info to make good buying decisions.
When I first got married moved out of the house for the first time I kept a strict budget I think following a budget for several years help me to more or less know now and retirement what I have and don’t have not have to watch it so closely. I highly recommend it for people and debt or those just starting out to actually see where your money goes or has gone.
Yes. It can be flexible, but creating a budget, tracking expenses and then adjusting as needed throughout the month lets us know if we are letting lifestyle creep take over.
I think its worth giving it a go to start off with, but a much more powerful technique is to track your spending (and write it down) for a few months
I felt budgeting was necessary after we got married. It was a way to know what money we had to spend and what we had to save. Saving was vital to me and my wife, as I saw what happened to many retired folks that ran out of money, or did not have enough. We never spent more than we had, we just waited. So you might say I budgeted for 50 years, always insuring to save at the minimum, the equal match by any employer for our Traditional IRA. That was probably the BEST investment decision ever for us. After 50 years of budgeting, and with all 3 kids through College and married, I discarded the budget. Now I am in the reverse mode, speeding more than my income as we retired to Independent Living. The only reason I feel we have full confidence to be retired comfortably, is because we made saving via budgeting, a very high priority. Budgeting allowed us the info to make good buying decisions.
pls excuse my typo. That should be “if you OWE money on your credit cards . . .”