Budget Couple Podcast

• 50% of income on essentials
• 30% of income on wants
• 20% of income on savings

How this works for us:

• 39% of income on essentials
• 13% of income on wants
• 47% of income on savings

30% of gross (before taxes) income - came from Brooke Amendment, capped rent for public housing at 25%, Reagan bumped it to 30%

Many articles, sites now say it is outdated - doesn't take into account student loans and retirement expectations of younger generations

Not very flexible considering the cost of living in some places, other debt you may have, the fact that you probably don't need to increase your house cost to maintain 30% as your income increases (we're paying nowhere near 30%)

Dave Ramsey - 25% of take-home pay, 15-year fixed rate

One option is to consider what emergency fund you're able to maintain - could it sustain you with your housing budget for 3-6 months?

20/4/10 rule - 20% down, 4 =year loan, 10% of gross income (include insurance)

20% of gross income on all car related expense (6% for us)

Price of the car no more than 50% of gross income ($80K, when new $41k, now $20k for us)

4% rule - Find out how much you spend a year and multiply it by 25. Example $40k a year is 1 million. This is the amount that you need to have saved. If you spend 4% or under per year of that money, you will never run out of money in that time frame. Stock market grows 7% a year and inflation is 3% a year, giving you 4% to live on.

Trinity study finds that 100% of people doing this have enough money for 25 years. 96% have enough for 30 years.

Nate talks about the Budget Couple's non-sexy plans for their tax return and what to do when the stock market is jumpy.

Listener questions are answered in relation to inconsistent income and how to best budget for it and what to do with a large inheritance. The Budget Couple offers their advice on how they would go about solving these problems.

In this episode, we answer listener questions about our budget. We look at our bank accounts, budgeting categories, how we pay for expenses, and planning for non-monthly bills.

Danielle accepted a new job over our hiatus. The job comes with a new salary, benefits, and much more, but how do we plan for it. In this episode we talk about our process for updating our budget with a different income and discuss how we decide to allot money to different areas of our budget.

Sorry for the delay but we will be back with all new episodes next week. We have lots of exciting plans and news to share with you. Please keep the questions coming and we will see you next week.

Nate and Danielle discuss one of Nate's new gadget purchase ideas. They explore how to agree to large purchases, how it impacts their budget, and the thought process behind spending as a team. They also discuss holiday budgeting.

Nate and Danielle answer listener questions about credit card usage. They also discuss how they use debit cards, cash, and other payment methods. Finally a quick review of the budgeting app Every Dollar is given.

Nate and Danielle answer listener questions about debt, buying vs renting, setting a budget, and the biggest change to their budget over time.

In this episode Nate and Danielle answer listener questions. In particular, they explore a question from a couple on how to set budgeting categories. They discuss what they would do and the reasons behind it