Forget the traditional budget

75% of people who budget fail to hit their budget. The common approach doesn’t work, and it often sounds like that:

• When people are under budget, they think “All good, I can keep spending”
• Once they exceed their budget, it becomes “Screw that budget, I’m not going to stop living”

Don’t laugh, these are true quotes we’ve heard countless times.

If the only thing you look at is how much you’ve spent against your budget, you’ll only stop the day you’ve exceeded your budget. Which is already too late. So what’s the solution?

Instead, manage your spending pace

When driving, you don’t wait to reach the traffic line to do an emergency brake. No, you slowdown when the light turns orange so that the car can stop on tight at the red light 🚦.

Imagine doing the same thing with your spending. You would monitor your spending speed / pace over time with a line chart (and not a pie chart).

Introducing the Budget Line

The Budget Line tracks your spending curve (solid line) against your ideal Budget Line (dotted). Your objective is to maintain your spending curve below your Budget Line.