Thank you for dropping by my blog.
I find yrs very interesting.
Just wonder why is 10 not in the 100 equation ?
Mine is
15 tithe
60 invest
15 travel
10 Raining day

Hubby’s side on expense mostly.

Invest on : 20 gold bar / silver gold
25 gold stocks
25 silver stocks
30 RE

Hubby on : bonds / mutual funds

Jamy

I do know that housing does take up a large (perhaps larger than really necessary) percentage of a lot of people’s income. However, it’s also unfortunate at times (once again just look at the current housing debacle to see how dangerous that is). What would you say that your budget would be? Does budgeting come easily for you?

In the case of being able to do it, I’d definitely agree that a huge benefit would be the agility that you gain from living such a lightweight life (in comparison to your income, whatever that may be). Emergencies, job loss, entrepreneurship, and so much more are in the realm of reasonable! Some might find great value in that, some might not.

@Billy
Oh I suppose that you’re right about not currently having the skills the code your own application. But maybe someday?

That’s interesting that you have Vista and don’t hardly run it. Is that simply because you don’t like it? I must admit that the application that I’m writing can not do anything fancy like pay your bills online or file your taxes for you. So I guess that’s a negative, but it’s also kind of the point. I enjoy it when things are boiled down to what they are. And I don’t want a budgeting program that is too complicated. I’m sure that others out there don’t either. That’s the goal of my budgeting program.

You’re definitely right about the different ways of diversifying yourself (especially your savings and investments). I like that there was a lot of discussion in response to this article (money really is very interesting to people). Perhaps I will write some more that is related. It’s definitely something that I think about and go through (as I’m sure that many people do). Thanks for the suggestion.

Do you have all of your savings and investments as carefully planned out as your budgeting? I think they’re definitely related, but I could easily see how one could be organized while the other is not. That’s kind of how it is for me. I don’t rather think that my savings and investments are entirely too well planned out at this point. Now as much as I plan out my budgeting anyways.

Oh, I know why you set it at 10%. I have a set percentage too. Giving regularly and trusting that what you have left is enough requires more faith than “I don’t think I have any big purchases coming up in the next two weeks. I’ll give more this time” and “I gotta pay the bills. I’ll give less this week” mentality. I have a certain percentage set aside for giving, too. Nothing wrong with that, but it’s more about setting money aside to give BEFORE you spend it than just “10%, that’s it, end of story”.

I guess I “paid” for mine, in a way. I figured if I didn’t have to pay for Quicken, I can afford to buy Vista. I thought I’d use it more, but I run Vista like once a week just to update Quicken. Oh another great thing about it is you can download transactions directly from your bank, brokerage firm, or whatever. That’s pretty handy.

Just as important as how to “budget”, having an emergency fund for unexpected expenses is just as important. Then there’s the “how” part of savings. Where do you stash your savings? How much of it do you want to allocate as “short-term” and keep in more liquid form? And how much of it do consider “long-term” savings and can risk investing in something that could be volatile in the next few years but with a larger long-term gain, like stocks? What kind of accounts can you set up to maximize your tax advantage? etc. I think that in itself is worthy of another post.

I’ve always heard that your rent/mortgage/housing could be 25%, so it would be really hard to cover the rest of your expenses with just 5%. Still, seems like if you *could* do it, you’d be pretty much set with whatever emergency came up.

Oh I don’t mean to make the 10% as a do it and leave it kind of thing. But I do think that it’s important to have a goal in mind, rather than simply relying on willy nilly giving based on whims. That (to me) is more of a dedication. But I digress.

You’re right about the maleness of the discussion. That’s a rather amusing observation. I rather wonder if it’s just not as interesting to females or it just so happens that none commented.

I got a free copy of Quicken from interviewing with Intuit, so I’m just using that. No programing skills for fancy shumancy programs with variables. But the concept is the same: it categorizes what comes in and out of your account and gives you an overview of different categories by month, last three months, YTD, or whatever. Sadly it’s a Windows version, so I did have to buy Vista (employee discount!) to run it. Mac version of Quicken is no good, from what I hear.

Having a pre-determined percentage set aside for offering isn’t a bad thing. It’s for sure helpful i but I think how much to give is something we can continually pray about, and not let 10% be the ceiling and treat it as paying my dues, and now I can move on to me type of mindset. But you’re right, most people that bring up no mandatory thing as a pass to give less and keep more for themselves.

This seems to be a very male-dominate discussion.

Daniel:

Having a proper world view of money and finance is essential, starting from how we view the money we have (”whose money is it anyway?”) to being good stewards of what we’re given. Thanks for seeing the need to teach on this topic.

There are so many topic you can discuss about this it can turn into a semester-long series.

All told the idea of this budget is not to cover “average” or “required” expenses as it seems that a lot of that is just keeping up with the Jones. The idea for this budget (in my opinion) is to constrain particular areas of your spending. That might mean that a seemingly healthy income to most people would actually not cover what one would think of as the lifestyle that income deserves. Maybe that’s not a problem with the budget, maybe it’s a problem with the perception of what a particular income “deserves” to be able to do. That might sound defensive, but it’s just a point of thought. Still, your point about it being a difficult task for someone to actually accomplish is well-taken.

@Billy
Although there is nothing mandatory about 10%, I enjoy setting that since it will allow me to keep doing what I want to do. I think that often people point out that it is not mandatory simply because they want to give less, and that is not the point at all.

Thanks for explaining how you go about budgeting.

I think that the consumption of more than the income is a huge problem in America. I think that it stems from a bad mindset that thinks that everything is going to be okay in the end. There is no long-term view to be had for most. Look at current events going on like the housing and stock market instability!

For me personally, I don’t have things like student loans so I believe that I’m actually doing better than the 40-30-20-10. I don’t exactly remember the percentages exactly because I input them into my program as variables. I only see the amounts that I have in my “accounts.” However I did have to modify them before because I had alloted myself too much in certain accounts. I definitely know that my free expenditures is fairly minimal, right now, so a lot of that gets eventually dumped to savings as well. If I had to pay rent/housing costs then my necessary spending would rise some and my savings would drop down more towards the 40% as in this budget.

I think that your idea that borrowing should be limited to necessary expenditures is a good one. It seems as if there are people nowadays borrowing for items that could possibly be a free expenditure rather than a necessary one. Even getting a more luxurious car could be partly a free expenditure, in my opinion.

Some caveats to thinking that I can support this budget are that I’m single (nobody to support). Haha I’m tempted to just leave it at that.
Good discussion all in all. Thanks for your comments.

@daniel
Oh it’s always interesting to have discussions about finances. There is much to be learned, and almost all people can get interested in it because it has a direct impact on their lives. What kinds of things are you thinking about saying?