My Guide to Stay on Budget

My Guide to Stay on Budget How you bank matters. Budget This is a (free) Budgeting Template I created that you can use. Alternatively, Rocket Money has a free trial that can help you pull this information together quicker. Income Debt Bills Spending Review your Budget & adjust where needed Banking This is my banking account of choice, and it is special, so the following checklist items are specific to its capabilities. Open a Crew Finance Account Deposit any amount of money - all transfers to or from outside banks will land in the "Checking" pocket you start with. Submit the order for a Debit Card (free) Go to your settings, and turn on "include me in new feature testing" - Reflogin Create 4 Pockets: Food, Transportation, Other. These are to be used so spending so you do not need to attach any "goal" to them. Create 3 Pockets: Emergency Fund (Goal = 3Mo of expenses), Other Savings (you choose the goal), and Loved Ones (you choose the goal) Create 1 Pocket: Good to Invest Create a Virtual Debit Card called "Bills" that is always connected to your "Checking" Pocket Create a Virtual Debit Card called "Venmo" that is always connected to your "Checking" Pocket Enter your Bills into the "Bill Reserve" under the Autopilot tab in the Crew App Automate Use your Budget as a road map to create the following automations: Automate a Weekly Allowance deposit to your Spending Pockets: Food, Transportation, and Other Automate transfers to your Savings Pockets: Emergency Fund, Other Savings, and Loved Ones - Suggestion for Predictable Paychecks: Default amount that coincides with when you get paid. - Suggestion for Unpredictable Paychecks: At the end of the month have an automation check your "Checking" pocket balance to determine if you have enough set aside for monthly bills before moving anything into savings. - NOTE: Look at the AutoTransfer Tutorials tab for visual help Automate Transferring Money to "Other Savings" and "Good to Invest" when your Emergency Fund is at its goal balance. This means you don't need to keep track of where it's at to funnel money to over priorities once the goal is met. It also means not having to change deposits if you need to pull from your Emergency Fund. It will take care of itself. Update your Direct Deposit to your Crew Account (reminder all deposits to Crew will be under the "Checking" pocket) Update your Bills & Debit payments to Crew using the "Bills" virtual debit card or the Account number information. Both will pull funds from the "Checking" pocket which we want. All done!