I’m no expert. I did make a spreadsheet that I have one sheet of all my recurring bills/expenses and anything else I need to include. Such as $200 per paycheck for food (groceries).
In a way, it’s similar to the YANB “Envelopes” approach. But what my sheet does is it tracks each expense over the previous rolling 12 months so I know the average monthly amount for each one.
The sheet then tells me how much out of each paycheck needs to be direct deposited into my ‘Expenses/bills’ checking account. ( have a separate account for bills/expenses like utilities, another one separately for rent, as my rental agency has authorization from me to take rent out directly each month.
Yes, I even have my rent on automatic withdrawal now.
Another tab in the sheet shows how many hours I actually have to work to pay each expense. Rent is by far the largest right now. I need 32 of my 80 hours just for that. The sheet helped me determine that due to my expense load, I have to work the full 80 hours PLUS 14 hours of Overtime on each check.
Not something I’d have known had I not taken the time to plot out the sheet.
Anyone who knows me well enough would say “Of COURSE you made a spreadsheet, Bill”.
The spreadsheet shows me that I need a passive income of $37,765.37 annually to keep my bills paid and free up most of my time to my own pursuits.
Before anyone asks, it isn’t set up in a way I can easily share it out on Google Sheets yet. I’ve given thought to actually make a prettier version of it to share here somehow for the wealth/money-minded peeps to be able to use.