A budget that updates itself
Build a small monthly budget and see what is left change the instant you alter one figure.
A budget is not for finding out what things cost. You already know that. It is for answering the other question — the one that keeps people awake — which is what happens if.
What happens if the heating goes up six dollars. What happens if the insurance is forty more this year. On paper, each of those is ten minutes of arithmetic and a fresh sheet. Built properly once, each of them is one number and no arithmetic at all.
Key points
- Build a budget with a total and a what-is-left that keep themselves right.
- Ask "what happens if" by changing one figure.
- Watch every figure below it correct itself, without touching them.
What to remember
- Add up the outgoings, then take that away from what comes in. Two boxes, and the sheet is alive.
- Change the figure, never the total. The total is doing a job and it is doing it well.
Try this
Write down four things that go out every month and one thing that comes in. Put them in a spreadsheet, add up the four, and take the total away from the one. It will take about ten minutes and you will have something you can use for years.
Practice: A budget that updates itself. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.