Whether it’s for an article on topics like how to deal with your student loans or a personal question like whether continuing to have pet insurance is worth it, I’m constantly thinking about money.When it comes to actually managing my money, I do my best to take the advice my colleagues and I gather from a variety of experts and folks who’ve successfully accomplished goals like paying off debt and retiring early, but I’m far from perfect.One of my favorite pieces of advice we’ve shared on CNBC Make It, though, is that you don’t need to follow a strict budget. “Research shows in budgeting, and we see the same thing with a much broader body of research in dieting, that that kind of restriction doesn’t work,” Dana Miranda, a certified personal finance educator, told Make It earlier this year.This validates my personal aversion to tracking every dollar and reminds me that money is supposed to let you have fun and live well — as long as you’re doing so within reason. As such, I use three main tools to keep an eye on my spending and work toward my financial goals. They help me stress less and feel empowered to make my day-to-day financial decisions. 1. A calendarWhile I don’t set and stick to a strict monthly budget, I do try to set myself up for success ahead of each month by filling out a money calendar. I use Google Drawings to do this digitally, but ultimately it is a version of a pen and paper spending plan.Each month I copy over my routine expenses and automatic payments like my student loan payment and streaming subscriptions. Then as costs for things like social events or home supplies come up, I add them into the calendar so I have a general idea of how much money I need or want to spend each week. I set weekly goals for how much money I want to have left over at the end of each weekend and try to adjust my spending decisions accordingly.For example, if I know I’m going out to dinner with a friend one week, I’ll mark that on the calendar and aim to avoid other takeout or non-grocery food purchases that week to save my cash for the social outing. Planning this way helps keep my careful and carefree spending in balance.2. Spending ‘buckets’In 2023, my primary bank, Ally, introduced a feature called “buckets” in its app for savings and checking accounts. The feature functions like virtual envelopes to help you earmark money for certain goals. This year, I started using the spending buckets feature in my checking account to keep even better track of my money in tandem with my calendar. When my paycheck hits my account, I start shuffling money around to various buckets: debt payments, insurance premiums, beauty treatments and more. When transactions hit my account, I can direct them to come out of the corresponding buckets. It’s a pretty simple way to see where my money needs to go and how much I have left for spontaneous or more nebulous spending categories like groceries and clothes.3. Sinking funds A sinking fund is money you set aside
Mer. Gen 8th, 2025
