A personal finance reporter shares their three favorite tools for managing spending and staying on track with financial goals.
I'm a personal finance reporter living in New York City.
3 tools I use to keep my spending in checkWhen it comes to actually managing my money, I do my best to take the advice my colleagues and I gather from a variety of experts and folks who've successfully accomplished goals like 'Research shows in budgeting, and we see the same thing with a much broader body of research in dieting, that that kind of restriction doesn't work,' Dana Miranda, a certified personal finance educator,This validates my personal aversion to tracking every dollar and reminds me that money is supposed to let you have fun and live well — as long as you're doing so within reason. As such, I use three main tools to keep an eye on my spending and work toward my financial goals. They help me stress less and feel empowered to make my day-to-day financial decisions.While I don't set and stick to a strict monthly budget, I do try to set myself up for success ahead of each month by filling out a money calendar. I use Google Drawings to do this digitally, but ultimately it is a version of a Each month I copy over my routine expenses and automatic payments like my student loan payment and streaming subscriptions. Then as costs for things like social events or home supplies come up, I add them into the calendar so I have a general idea of how much money I need or want to spend each week. I set weekly goals for how much money I want to have left over at the end of each weekend and try to adjust my spending decisions accordingly. For example, if I know I'm going out to dinner with a friend one week, I'll mark that on the calendar and aim to avoid other takeout or non-grocery food purchases that week to save my cash for the social outing. Planning this way helps keep my careful and carefree spending in balance.This year, I started using the spending buckets feature in my checking account to keep even better track of my money in tandem with my calenda
PERSONAL FINANCE BUDGETING SPENDING FINANCIAL GOALS MONEY MANAGEMENT
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
3 Tools I Use to Keep Spending in CheckA personal finance reporter shares three tools she uses to manage her spending effectively without strict budgeting.
Read more »
3 Tools a Personal Finance Reporter Uses to Manage SpendingA personal finance reporter shares three tools they use to keep spending in check without strict budgeting. The tools include a monthly money calendar, setting weekly spending goals, and utilizing spending buckets in their checking account.
Read more »
Vivek Ramaswamy: Spending Bill Full of ‘Excessive Spending, Special Interest Giveaways & Pork Barrel Politics’Source of breaking news and analysis, insightful commentary and original reporting, curated and written specifically for the new generation of independent and conservative thinkers.
Read more »
Rep. Norman Demands Spending Cuts to Offset Disaster Relief and Farm Funding in Spending BillRepublican Congressman Ralph Norman outlines his conditions for supporting a spending bill, emphasizing the need for offsets to disaster relief and agricultural funding through cuts to Biden administration programs.
Read more »
China’s Finance Ministry: Will step up fiscal spending, accelerate spending in 2025China’s Finance Ministry said in a statement at the National Fiscal Work Conference on Tuesday that they “will step up fiscal spending, accelerate spending in 2025.
Read more »
Defense Secretary Nominee Pete Hegseth Says Trump Told Him, ‘Keep Going, Keep Fighting’Source of breaking news and analysis, insightful commentary and original reporting, curated and written specifically for the new generation of independent and conservative thinkers.
Read more »