Money Mindset

Money Mindset discusses the experiences and opinions of a middle-aged professional on the topic of money, including: financial planners, investment experiences, part-time income sources, real estate investment and private sales, web site income opportunities, changing professions, home office organization, money education for kids, and many other subjects I have experienced first hand or even just thought about.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Budgeting "Apples to Apples"

It's very difficult to keep a budget in your head when you are busy with your job, and your spouse is working, and you have kids doing things throughout the weeks and months. I used to think I could keep it straight in my head. But what I've found is that while you can save a bit of money by paying things as they come up, it ends up costing in terms of "stress" and unexpected hits on your bank account.

Recently, I've decided to move everything I can to monthly, and if possible, automatic payments. Where that's not possible, I try to put money into a separate account, automatically on a monthly basis to cover things like taxes and major expenses I know I'm going to have.

The link above has a table to work out monthly expenses. I find it is better for me to take the hit on interest and smooth out my cashflow.

- Scott

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