And those owners can almost always find a compassionate ear from their loyal rich CEOs who don’t want to upset a however many years relationship of “I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine” kinda thing.

That’s what I was thinking. Pretty much what I would expect them to say publicly. Who knows what they actually think…you don’t find it in the news, that’s for sure.

Don’t worry, I’ll go first.

So I ultimately agree that the first thing to do is to recognize your known amounts. I start with a simple Excel spreadsheet and begin with known monthly income amounts first. Fixed or relatively consistent income gets it’s own row. Then I try to think about other sources of income that I make throughout the year (if any) and then average that to a monthly amount.

Next I start with all of my known fixed expenses. Mortgage/rent, car payments, insurance, etc. Next comes known variable expenses like gas, groceries, etc. I always average out the last few months and try to lean towards a higher amount to be conservative. Last, I try to always budget for unexpected expenses. Vehicle maintenance, child injury, unexpected bachelor party…you name it, but every month on average SOMETHING unexpected comes along.

What I’m left with, I divide by 30 days to figure out what I can spend on a daily basis. Some days I spend over, sometimes way under…but this gives me a good idea every day on how I should be doing for the month. I find it helps to have that “per day” thought in your mind at all times!

So this is just advocating for budgeting in general? Well let’s take it a step further…how do you (and others) go about building your budget?