06/19/2026
If you aren't sure HOW to start budgeting, this is your starting post!!
I'll break these 5 common budgets into two parts - what you're tracking and how you track it.
1️⃣ Zero based budgeting is making sure EVERY dollar is going to a specific place. Your income and your expenses + savings should be equal for this. This can be tricky-ish to track manually sometimes, so getting a zero-based budget mobile app could be helpful
2️⃣ When you pay yourself first, you are transferring cash out of your checking account BEFORE you spend anything. This can be done with a simple auto-transfer!
3️⃣ The envelope system traditionally was setting aside physical cash for every expense category. While I wouldn't recommend that in 2025, you can do a similar thing by having a bank account with a categories feature. Make categories and separate your cash each month!
4️⃣ The 50-30-20 budget is breaking your budget into 3 major groups: needs, wants, and savings. This is pretty simple to do with a spreadsheet, but could also be tracked with one of many mobile apps
5️⃣ Finally, the no-budget budget is the simplest of all budgets! This is just tracking your total spending and keeping it below a set number. You could do this by tallying up spending weekly or monthly in a spreadsheet. With the simplicity of this method, no need to overcomplicate it!
Which method do you use?
- Matt
P.S. I'm a HUGE index fund guy, so I made a free index fund guide explaining them and laying out options to create an index fund portfolio at different brokers (Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc). Comment "guide" and I'll send you a link to get the PDF!
