The Top Benefits of Living Below Your Means
Learning how to build habits that can help you spend less and save more is essential for building wealth.
Zero-Based Budgeting
Spending Too Much Money? Cut Back in These 5 Areas
5 Areas in Which Youâre Likely Spending Too Much It can be easy to do: spending too much money in one area without even realizing it. Youâre a smart person, though. You know that in order to reach your financial goals, you have to take a good look at your budget and figure out where
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Best budgeting apps of 2021
YNAB: You Need a Budget Review
If you’re ready to account for where every cent of your money goes, You Need a Budget could work for you. The app is based on the premise of “giving every dollar a job,” meaning you budget for every expense — fixed, discretionary or otherwise. Want to buy a new purse or pair of shoes? If your monthly clothing budget is $100, then you may not be able to afford it this month. Friends want to double date at that trendy new Italian restaurant? It may not be in your $200 dining out budget.
The app makes budgeting straightforward, allowing you to see how much over or under you are for a particular line item. But it’s best for people who want to get serious about how much they actual spend and where they may need to make sacrifices to achieve a larger goal.
What I Liked
Zero-based budgeting is tough, but I can see its value. You have to account for every dollar coming in, either using it to cover monthly household expenses, pay off debt, for dining out and for what YNAB calls “quality of life” expenses like vacation. During this process, I realized that I’m not as good a budgeter as I thought. I do a good job of tracking our spending after the fact, but I could improve when it comes to setting aside money for specific purposes — basically being more financially proactive. For example, before using this app, I had no idea how much my husband and I spent each month dining out and we never really set aside a specific amount for this purpose. It was more like “we’ll eat out no more than two times a week.” I also had no gauge of my own discretionary spending, since this money comes out of my personal account. Using the tool allowed me to see that we spend less than $200 a month eating out, but that I need to keep a better eye on my discretionary spending for things like beauty and hair products and anything from Amazon.com (Amazon Prime admittedly has turned me into a shopping junkie). We plan to buy a house within a few years, so YNAB allowed me to see that these are two areas where we (or I) could curb spending and put that additional money toward a down payment. Actually seeing the budget also showed me that we could be saving more. We have more cushion than we need in our account for household expenses, so it might be better to put more of that money toward retirement or paying down my student loans.
How Do Negative Interest Rates Work? What They May Mean for Your Wallet
Imagine a world where the bank pays you to take out a loan. This is whatâs known as a negative interest rate, and while it may seem counterintuitive at first, it can have economic benefits in a struggling economy. So, how do negative interest rates work? During an economic downturn, banks may turn to negative
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5 Personal Budgeting Tools to Try
Budgeting is one of the most important aspects of personal finance. Whether youâre planning ahead for a big expense, like a wedding or a new home, or simply need to keep track of your monthly finances, a budget is your first step to getting everything in order. However, many people might struggle to make and
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Fun Money: How To Save For It + Fun Benefits of Spending
With 59 percent of adults in the U.S. living paycheck to paycheck, many people struggle to have fun while still paying for their necessities. After all, itâs hard to spend money on yourself when youâre under financial stress. But creating a fun money budget can help you have a good time with any budget. To
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Best finance apps of 2022: Which ones are right for you? | MoneyUnder30
Reach your goals and organize your money with apps that offer helpful features and time-saving tools. See the best finance apps of the year.
Chapter 08: Zero-Based Budgeting 101
Putting your money to work is one of the best ways to maximize your financial potential. Whether you make six figures a year or minimum wage, every dollar you bring in is an opportunity to make more. But strategically allocating your finances is about more than just funneling money into your investment accounts. Itâs also
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Chapter 07: Using the 50-30-20 Rule to Budget
So far in this series, weâve answered important questions about budgeting, such as âWhat is a budget?â and âWhy is budgeting beneficial?â This series has been focusing on how using a budget can help you keep your spending in check and ensure your savings goals are on track. One way to do that is using
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Chapter 09: Managing Your Money with a Budget
So far in this series, weâve discussed what a budget is, what you should include in a budget, and the various ways you can make a budgetâincluding zero-based budgeting, which we covered in Chapter 8. Now that you have all the budgeting basics, weâll cover how you can manage your budget. Making your budget is
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