Money and values

[Tybee]

I respectfully disagree, thinking that budgeting provides guardrails- as Dickens wrote,

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

[iris lilies]

I respectfully disagree, thinking that budgeting provides guardrails- as Dickens wrote,

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

Well, I will admit that mine is a fringe opinion and I don’t necessarily hold it strongly. there are a fair number of people over on the Mr. Money Mustache site, though, who do not “budget. “

Sure people need the initial guidance of a “budget “I guess. But after a short period of comparing financial obligations to incoming money, I think people should move quickly beyond that, thinking about the leftover money from bills, and what should they do with it, to reach financial freedom. In my high school, of course I would teach people not to look at that as a “windfall of sorts “every month if the budget category was in the black.

I would also teach my high school kids to think about squeezing some of those obligations down to create more in the financial freedom column.
When it comes to have tedious, financial record-keeping, I prefer the concept of tracking. There’s no reason someone can’t do both of course.
Dave Ramsey calls budgeting “assigning every incoming dollar to a job.” That just isn’t for me.

[Tradd]

I don’t like to budget. My finances are simple. I pay everything via online banking or with a card. So it’s easily trackable. I rarely use cash.

I’m on a big frugality group on FB. I’ve been seeing a ton of elitist behavior. People being shamed for shopping at Walmart because WM has a long history of not treating employees right. When you have to feed yourself or a family, that comes first, especially if you don’t have a lot of money. The elites don’t seem to realize or care that people in rural areas/small towns probably don’t have a lot of shopping choices. WM may be their only choice.

[catherine]

I prefer the concept of tracking. There’s no reason someone can’t do both of course.
Dave Ramsey calls budgeting “assigning every incoming dollar to a job.” That just isn’t for me.

Yes, DR does start with telling people to "give every dollar a name" but that is just a tool to get to all the other wealth-building practices. As I'm sure you're aware, it goes from squeezing every penny out of your "budget" to save $1000, then pay off debt (eating beans and rice, rice and beans until you have no debt), then fund a 3-6 month emergency fund, then start stashing in a tax-deferred instrument, then pay off your house...

Dave Ramsey's target audience isn't the iris lilies of the world--his audience are the people who haven't a clue and found themselves overwhelmed with tough financial predicaments. I have told my kids that no matter what you think of Dave Ramsey, the plan is pretty foolproof to get you to a place of financial independence. And I think when you are deep in a hole making every expenditure accountable to your goals is enlightening.

That being said, I like the concept of tracking better than budgeting, too. I think they are related. I track what I'm spending so I can see in black and white where the spending is not worth my life energy, as YMOL would say.

[Tybee]

I guess I start with a spending plan--lately I have using Everydollar which does "give every dollar a name" which I like, then track when I spend in that category. I have been surprised that I tend to spend more than I remember spending, and that things come up, like the car insurance bill this week that somehow I forgot about--so having accounts where we save money for various categories saves us from not having the money. I don't know how we could do that without a spending plan, which makes us aware of where we are actually spending, and plans so that each month we can pay the bills?

[rosarugosa]

I am a fan of budgeting, at least for most people. If you are achieving your goals without it, then fine, whatever works, but since so many people are not achieving their goals, it can be a useful tool.
For us, here was the key difference. In our free-spending days, an extra $100 at then end of the month meant "let's go out to eat!" When we changed our ways, it meant "we have an extra $100 to put into savings!" (or put on the mortgage, or whatever the primary financial goal might be at the time).

[iris lilies]

I’ve been Listening to Dave Ramsey lately after never really hearing an entire show. I do enjoy his no nonsense approach to telling people what they need to do with their financial lives, and it’s interesting how often relationship decisions affect finances so he offers plenty of “dad” advice on family and friend relationships.

Anyway, good old Dave has coursework for high school students. He shows content on his website. He makes some pretty big claims on his podcast that this curriculum is being used in hundreds of schools across the country. Maybe homeschooling? I don’t know that I buy that.

anyway, I looked over the curriculum contents, and it seems OK to me, but of course it does have whole section on budgeting. You can’t get away from the
concept of “budgeting “ in mainstream financial thought.

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/educ...IaAlewEALw_wcB

[ToomuchStuff]

I’ve been Listening to Dave Ramsey lately after never really hearing an entire show. I do enjoy his no nonsense approach to telling people what they need to do with their financial lives, and it’s interesting how often relationship decisions affect finances so he offers plenty of “dad” advice on family and friend relationships.

Anyway, good old Dave has coursework for high school students. He shows content on his website. He makes some pretty big claims on his podcast that this curriculum is being used in hundreds of schools across the country. Maybe homeschooling? I don’t know that I buy that.

anyway, I looked over the curriculum contents, and it seems OK to me, but of course it does have whole section on budgeting. You can’t get away from the
concept of “budgeting “ in mainstream financial thought.

https://www.ramseysolutions.com/educ...IaAlewEALw_wcB

Private, religious schools.

D.R. was a friend of a late friend of mine. I remember when a gal that worked for us, was offered a chance to see a D.R. event by her now deceased uncle, that owned a bank and his daily driver was a Maybach.
I like him, but am hopeful that eventually, his message gets separated from religion that it is based on, or people realize they can get the info for free, from the same book he did.

[iris lilies]

Private, religious schools.

D.R. was a friend of a late friend of mine. I remember when a gal that worked for us, was offered a chance to see a D.R. event by her now deceased uncle, that owned a bank and his daily driver was a Maybach.
I like him, but am hopeful that eventually, his message gets separated from religion that it is based on, or people realize they can get the info for free, from the same book he did.

You are right and I didn’t think of that, yes, it’s probably used in private schools that are religion based.

I’ve been listening to several Dave podcast and I don’t really mind the religious stuff. He had something interesting to say in yesterday‘s podcast about tithing. Later I’ll come back to the thread and post about it.

[Tybee]

You are right and I didn’t think of that, yes, it’s probably used in private schools that are religion based.

I’ve been listening to several Dave podcast and I don’t really mind the religious stuff. He had something interesting to say in yesterday‘s podcast about tithing. Later I’ll come back to the thread and post about it.

Oh, please do--that is my latest question, and I am really interested in the idea of tithing on the increase, like many Mormons do--tithing at the end of the year on the increase that year. I did it this year for first time.