Comments on: My Annual Budgeting Process

By: Joel

Joel — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 17:27:45 +0000

In reply to Silke. Yeah with 2 little ones we should be able o get by for a while. But if they grow fast, i think we'll need to upgrade!

By: Silke

Silke — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 11:23:46 +0000

I think a Prius a perfect car for a family of four, as long as the persons sitting in the back are not taller than 1,5 m.
When we were looking for a new used car, I tried to sitting the back row, but could not sit upright with my 1,74 m.
Then I ruled that car out, because our older kid was already 1,5 and only 9 years at the time. But the car was meant to last 10-15 years.

By: Dividend Power

Dividend Power — Thu, 30 Dec 2021 14:36:18 +0000

I like it, very actionable.

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 15:15:13 +0000

In reply to Dan Murray. Love the simplicity! One of the biggest excuses I hear about budgeting is "I don't have the time for it"... But if you create a simple system and boil it down to just a few total numbers, it becomes very quick! Thanks for sharing, Dan!

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 15:13:18 +0000

In reply to Mary Lewis Persson.

Hey Mary! No, funnily enough I’ve never tracked income. I mentally note when/how we get paid, but our income has always been higher than expenses so it’s never had to be fully accounted for.

I rarely have reimbursements either (and if someone owes us, they usually pay within the same month) so I haven’t had to worry about that. Maybe things will change when we have kids with all the bills and stuff.

Can you just create an ‘accounts receivable’ line item with anything that needs to be reimbursed and then add notes to follow up wach month? This would keep it seperate from your regular spending.

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 29 Dec 2021 15:07:22 +0000

In reply to Impersonal Finances. The merchant breakdown is fun, but scary! When I look at specific retailers like (starbucks) I feel sick seeing how much I've spent in total over the years!

By: Impersonal Finances

Impersonal Finances — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 20:42:54 +0000

I have been using Mint for a decade and absolutely swear by it. I love going back through my old transactions and seeing which merchants take the most of my cash. Spending up about 6 grand this year compared to last year’s shutdown environment!

By: Mary Lewis Persson

Mary Lewis Persson — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 12:34:33 +0000

Do you not track income? How do you account for reimbursements? For me, this really shows up with medical expenses since we must wait on dental reimbursements so monthly expenses can get wacky.

By: Dan Murray

Dan Murray — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:51:22 +0000

I’ve found that bothering with all the detail isn’t value-added time. I set three primary targets every year:

1. Target spending limit
2. Minimum saving target
3. Target investment corpus value

All of the details of what we spend money on are capture by my bank and Simplifi. My investments are tracked in Personal Capital. I find managing these 3 numbers to be all I need to meet or exceed my long-term objective.