Craft as…Personal Finance??

Starting around 2016 I started to get really serious about budgeting. It helped that I was working at a Fintech company and personal finance was my day job. I’ve tried a lot of apps & services but in the end I preferred the flexibility of a spreadsheet. I follow the 50/30/20 budget rule which I didn’t learn until recently was popularized by Elizabeth Warren(!). No wonder I’m drawn to it!! The 50/30/20 rule suggests you spend 50% of your income on needs, 30% on wants, and you save 20%. I find the method extremely attainable regardless of income since it is percentage based. If I am being honest, for several years I had “want” and “savings” percentages swapped and still was able to make it work!

Here is my personal finance spreadsheet that I’ve been using for several years. I find that itemizing my expenses and understanding where my money goes has been the single best thing to happen to my spending.

I am also a huge advocate for sink funds! I have lots of individual savings accounts dedicated to a specific category. Categories such as travel, pet expenses, wedding, Christmas, etc. and have automatic transfers set up to pay a little in each month instead of having to quickly save up for these types of expenses or put them on my credit card.

Make a copy of the sheet and then feel free to customize! Its magic is its flexibility.