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Interesting story about "Wealth Watchers" a Money Diet (sorta like Weight Watchers).
"How We Saved $10,000 in Just One Year" - Your Money - MSN Living
The author of the story is married with two boys. She and her husband do not combine their inco me (they split bills), they tried this Money Diet separately and found relative success.
The Wealth Watchers program in short requires that you make a typical monthly budget, with income at the top subtract all fixed expenses, then take the remainder and divide by 30 to give yourself a daily discretionary budget. The author had about $90 a day to spend. Of course if you spend more one day you can spend less the next day...you tally up your net spending every week and save the excess. Psychologically, having only $90 a day to spend made her reevaluate her needs vs. wants therefore making her a better saver (like Weight Watchers does with its daily points system). After a year, she was able to save or pay down $10,000 worth of debt.
The only thing I didn't like about the story (example) is that she and her husband don't combine to any extent their finances... In my opinion, we were not put on this earth to go alone, so if you have a good healthy relationship and you utilize teamwork in everything else (raising kids, etc.) why not include your finances? I think she would have been much more successful if she and her husband combined some things...
In an extreme case this is how you end up with one spouse that is a saver and has $30k in the bank with $300k in retirement savings and the other spouse with $30k in debt and no retirement savings...that's counterproductive in my opinion and makes for a hard choice when the skeletons are reveled. When they retire will the responsible spouse (at the end of the day) be willing to share their hard earned money with the irresponsible spouse? Maybe your irresponsible spouse has a hard time with money and is not a natural saver, isn't the responsible one obligated to help them improve instead of leaving them to fend for themselves? I just think its a recipe for disaster.
I am personally a spreadsheet, category driven type of girl and would go crazy if I didn't know how my husband was managing the other side of the household, I need to balance my checkbook every day, and I don't buy anything without first consulting my budget. However, this daily allowance thing is a little too much...I budget two weeks at a time (aligned with my paycheck schedule).
What do you think about the Wealth Watcher program as described in the story? Is it something you can see working for your family?
MsMoneyGuru
Having problems developing a plan to get out of debt? Want to know who we are doing our debt snowball? You may need a coach...MsMoneyGuru is here to help, contact me at msmoneyguru@gmail.com for a consultation.
Interesting story about "Wealth Watchers" a Money Diet (sorta like Weight Watchers).
"How We Saved $10,000 in Just One Year" - Your Money - MSN Living
The author of the story is married with two boys. She and her husband do not combine their inco me (they split bills), they tried this Money Diet separately and found relative success.
The Wealth Watchers program in short requires that you make a typical monthly budget, with income at the top subtract all fixed expenses, then take the remainder and divide by 30 to give yourself a daily discretionary budget. The author had about $90 a day to spend. Of course if you spend more one day you can spend less the next day...you tally up your net spending every week and save the excess. Psychologically, having only $90 a day to spend made her reevaluate her needs vs. wants therefore making her a better saver (like Weight Watchers does with its daily points system). After a year, she was able to save or pay down $10,000 worth of debt.
The only thing I didn't like about the story (example) is that she and her husband don't combine to any extent their finances... In my opinion, we were not put on this earth to go alone, so if you have a good healthy relationship and you utilize teamwork in everything else (raising kids, etc.) why not include your finances? I think she would have been much more successful if she and her husband combined some things...
In an extreme case this is how you end up with one spouse that is a saver and has $30k in the bank with $300k in retirement savings and the other spouse with $30k in debt and no retirement savings...that's counterproductive in my opinion and makes for a hard choice when the skeletons are reveled. When they retire will the responsible spouse (at the end of the day) be willing to share their hard earned money with the irresponsible spouse? Maybe your irresponsible spouse has a hard time with money and is not a natural saver, isn't the responsible one obligated to help them improve instead of leaving them to fend for themselves? I just think its a recipe for disaster.
I am personally a spreadsheet, category driven type of girl and would go crazy if I didn't know how my husband was managing the other side of the household, I need to balance my checkbook every day, and I don't buy anything without first consulting my budget. However, this daily allowance thing is a little too much...I budget two weeks at a time (aligned with my paycheck schedule).
What do you think about the Wealth Watcher program as described in the story? Is it something you can see working for your family?
MsMoneyGuru
Having problems developing a plan to get out of debt? Want to know who we are doing our debt snowball? You may need a coach...MsMoneyGuru is here to help, contact me at msmoneyguru@gmail.com for a consultation.
I think there should be a "household" budget...not a seperate budget for each spouse. That's what works in my family. I don't think I'd be comfortable on the Wealth Watchers program. I too, budget 2 weeks at a time and that WW system doesn't appeal to me.
ReplyDeleteJust my two cents. :-)