[Jeremy]

My wife an I always make enough to cover what we need and want to spend. We don’t budget.

For those of you that are in a similar situation, do you budget?

For many people, budgeting is a crucial tool to ensure financial stability. But if you find yourself in a comfortable financial situation where your income consistently covers your expenses, do you still actively budget?

Some may argue that budgeting helps maintain discipline and prioritize savings or investments, while others might feel that it’s unnecessary if their finances are already in check.

We’d love to hear your thoughts! Do you continue to budget even if you’re financially secure?

If so, what motivates you to stick to a budget?

Or have you shifted away from it, and why? Share your approach and experiences.

[Endri]

Do you also save enough? That’s the question, I don’t budget but I know I ak always saving. Anywhere between 20-70%, budgeting would’ve definitely got me to FI quicker but I would’ve felt restricted.

[Tara]

Only people who have truly never been poor say “we never budget.” That’s most people in this group. If you grew up poor and actually struggled, you damn well budget.

I make close to $200k now and yes, I do a zero based budget every month. Who cares?

It helps me and calms me down. Is it some kind of flex to say you don’t budget?

Are you operating at a higher spiritual frequency?

Please.

[Emma]

We budgeted in the early days when we were actively paying off things. Now that the house is paid off and we have no debt we don’t really need to budget strictly anymore, but we do tighten the reigns every now and then depending on the circumstances, like tax time, Xmas, when property taxes are due etc

[Jasmine]

We’ve never budgeted. I’ve never even considered it. We just spend how we like and always seem to have plenty left over to save and invest.

I never even had any idea how much we were spending on broad categories such as groceries, travel, etc.

I just figured that if we always had so much left over every year, then we must be doing something right.

[Kevin]

I have never budgeted because I have tried to look at doing it many times and can never make it be a useful tool for us. I invest off the top before anything. It’s automatic and predictable.

Second comes the house. Third comes the monthly housing bills.

What’s left over I want us to spend freely without tracking every nickel and dime because at the end of the day I don’t care.

For me what’s left in the checkbook is specifically for indulging on the small things.

The big things are taken care of on auto pilot. Would like to know if I’m crazy but it has worked for us for 30 years.

I really don’t care if I see at the end of the month that Starbucks was visited 8 times.

That’s what the leftover money is for in my estimation.

[Justin]

I absolutely budget, not to limit myself but to know how much I can shovel into investments at the end of the month.

[Dan]

We don’t. My philosophy is that budgeting is like training wheels. Once you’re in touch with your spending and you make enough to cover your goals just focus on getting the big things right and spend according to your values and don’t sweat the small stuff.

[Stef]

No, but I try to be mindful and deliberate about big purchases, and try to avoid lifestyle creep.

[Marty]

We always put ourselves a big goal of investing. As long as we hit that goal we spend whatever we want!

[Barbara]

Yes, we budget. We make enough to cover what we want, but if I wanted to book one of our crazy-expensive adventure trips in the same month that our property taxes were due and then we happened to need a major car repair or something that same month – well, it would be tight.

Budgeting – well, “planning” really – allows us to set money aside for what our real priorities are (travel) while also knowing that all the “unexpected” expenses that will always come up will be covered.

And then when I have money left over after funding everything every month we get to decide what’s most important to us to do with that money – splurge now on something fun, put it towards a future trip, whatever

[Erin]

The only thing my husband and I “budget” for are our vacations and our savings/investments.

We would be similar to you, we have enough to cover what we need and want monthly.

We basically take care of what I said above, and live within the means with the rest.

[Grace]

No, I don’t budget. I focus on saving. If I’m saving what I want, it works out.

[Abigail]

I live on such a small percent of my income that it doesn’t make a lot of sense to budget. My biggest financial risk is that I’ll burn out and take extra time off.

If some small luxury keeps me working this hard, it was money well-spent.

[Ellen]

For most of my life I didn’t budget. I had enough money to meet my needs. But I was raised by a Depression Era parent who became an accountant and I have an “interesting” relationship with money.

I’m a natural saver and learning to budget helps me spend freely instead of being a $ hoarder.

So yes, I budget.

[Stacey]

We generally do the no budget – budget. Save/invest, bills, spend the rest.

[Rosemarie]

I have always had “tastes” below my ability to earn.
I think that’s the trick?

I have savings, retirement, and investing automatically removed from my monthly deposit before it hits my checking account.

If I didn’t have millennial children, I would never have to check my balance again.

[Lori]

No, but I retroactively track our spend so I can calculate how much we need to live off of for FIRE purposes.

[Tami]

We do not budget. Savings, investments and mortgage are automated in their own accounts. Once the other bills are paid then the rest is spendable as we want.

[Lexi]

I have a really hard time keeping up with documenting every expense but you can make your “budget” as specific or general as you want.

Like you can write down your fixed bills and savings %then cap your “guilt free spending money” on XyZ amount and call it good.

I think the issue you face with that is forgetting about “true expenses” so a lot of people struggle to remember the annual or less frequent expenses and think the money in your checking account is “available” to spend.

So, you can keep track of those numbers on a budget or paper envelopes or virtual savings buckets in the bank etc.

[David]

Budgets are great for those just starting out or for those who want to look and make cuts. For me, I love the anti-budget or reverse-budget.

I used to hit a target savings rate first and then spend the rest however I wanted.

Started out with around a 30% saving rate.

Then I would slowly increase making it a game so to speak.

This allowed me to on average invest 50%-75% of my income for 8 years before I retired early last summer.

Now I just spend money without a care for budgeting yet I still seem to invest around 30%-50% of my passive income from military retirement.

[Ann]

No. We save off the top, whatever is left is more than enough to cover our usual spending.

[Alissa]

No budget, and never had one. I shovel what’s left after spending and maxxing all tax deferred options into brokerage for Roth and other investments.

Millennial trauma from entering the job market during the last recession helps to keep savings high and spending low!

[Robin]

Once I decided to dig us out of debt, I budgeted and recorded every cent for 2-3 years. Once it got under control I didn’t have to do that.

If I find us sliding, I’ll check in with my husband and we’ll make adjustments.

[Author]

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