How do I make a household budget that I'll actually stick to?
Every time I try to make a budget I either forget about it after a week or it turns out unrealistic and I blow past it. How do people actually make budgets that work? What categories should I have? Should I budget down to the penny or keep it loose? My spouse and I have different spending styles too.
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Read 'The Millionaire Next Door' and 'A Random Walk Down Wall Street.' Those two books taught me more about money than anything else. The library has them for free. Most people who look rich are actually drowning in debt — real wealth is quiet.
5 Answers
Read 'The Millionaire Next Door' and 'A Random Walk Down Wall Street.' Those two books taught me more about money than anything else. The library has them for free. Most people who look rich are actually drowning in debt — real wealth is quiet.
If your employer offers a 401k match, contribute at LEAST enough to get the full match. That's free money — like a 100% instant return. Skipping the match is leaving thousands of dollars on the table every single year. Do that before anything else.
The simplest advice I ever got was: spend less than you earn and invest the difference. Sounds obvious but most Americans don't do it. Track every dollar you spend for a month — you'll be shocked where your money goes.
Be very skeptical of anything that promises high returns with no risk. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. The dot-com bust should have taught everyone that lesson. Slow and boring index funds beat hot stock tips over the long run.
Get a free copy of your credit report once a year from annualcreditreport.com — the real free one, not those 'free' sites with monthly fees. Check it for errors. Mistakes on credit reports are way more common than people realize.
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