Shannon Lee Simmons

And then inevitably the next day, like maybe a pal's coming over and you like needed more cheese.

And so you like, you went over your grocery budget and then you're like, oh, and then you have to like reconcile and steal from coffee.

And then you go the next day with a coworker, you're tired, it's two o'clock, you get a cookie.

And then it's like, oh, then you have to steal from that.

So it's this endless mind game that you're playing within your brain.

I think it's exhausting.

And you probably fail by like week one or two.

And then you give up completely thinking that budgeting is not for you.

And it's really what you've done is actually just tried to constrain money that needs to be flexible too much.

You've put too many rules on yourself.

you can loosen that a little bit so that you can still live within your means without hating your life.

So I hate the word budget and I hate traditional budgeting, but obviously people need to know what they can and can't afford and they have to know their limits or else we will overspend.

That is the crux of worry-free money, which is the very first book I wrote.

And I still stand by it today.

I still do this every single day with myself and others.

Essentially, you need to move your money into four different ways.

So there's like your fixed expenses, the money that's going to improve your net worth, your short-term savings, which is like, you know, the money that keeps you out of debt, emergencies, a big purchase, that kind of thing.

And then you're spending money and that's it.

You categorize it into two different piles, money you can spend, money you cannot spend.

Guess what?