Write about your approach to budgeting. – A money management question from the daily writing prompt.

Keeping cash out of my hands and pockets was something I learned early on because those two are easily separated. Let my better half run the books. In other words, let the most frugal and responsible person pay the bills. I concentrated on incoming.

If you want stuff, you had better have a plan for it and stick to it. If you want a home and family, then that’s a huge commitment and could take your lifetime. Your plan will have to be flexible and adaptable to change but always focused on the goal.

Making smart decisions along the way. Learn quickly from the ones you make wrong. Don’t underestimate the timing of decisions.

Bring in more than goes out. Make things last. Pay bills promptly. Save and invest in something, even a home. Be responsible and honest with yourself. The major debt should be the home. All others should be minimized and paid off quickly.

You can budget smart but sometimes the only way to change your state is to either increase your income and or reduce your expenses. It’s the simplest thing and the hardest thing to do because you have to live it. It means not being able to do things you might have done for a long time before that.

A compact car instead of an SUV, doing your own maintenance instead of hiring out. Brown bagging lunches, eating at home or skipping meals. Working overtime and another job to work on that down payment.

I would drive a car for as long as I could. Usually selling them a few miles short of 200k or 12+ years old. For instance, I have an old beater that is 14 years old now that I use almost every day. But I’m also older now and have been wise enough and saved to be able to have a toy (Mazda Miata) that only sees sunny days with the top down.

Luck or good decision making. We have been lucky with the lifespan of most things we have bought. Be it furniture, cars, my 27-year-old tractor, the 35-year-old drier, the 33-year-old fridge and many others. I still have an electric leaf blower, over 5 decades old. If you take care of things, they last.

When we were young and had just bought a home, I got some life insurance so that if I was gone my better half would have a place to live at least and a little more. But I don’t believe investing in life insurance beyond early years is a good investment.

If you’re going to invest, either find someone you really really really trust and then still be smart enough to stay educated yourself to ask them the questions you need to know to ask.

Medical expenses can really mess up a budget. No, not the monthly premiums or the deductibles. It’s that unexpected thing that sometimes hits many families. There is nothing you can do about these. They hurt your budget.

It can be a lot of sacrifices along the way to get what you want. Some are lucky and have it all. And sometimes the best laid plans and even some luck along the way can come up short. But if you tried your best and got most of the way there and accomplished all you wanted for everyone else then that is a victory.

Here is a rule I lived by and budgeted for. I wanted my children to have a much better life and opportunities than I had. Providing for their health, well-being, education, and solid home foundation while growing up. And then help them do the same for their children.