You Need a Budget: The Proven System for Breaking the Paycheck-to-Paycheck Cycle, Getting Out of Debt, and Living the Life You Want

Technicalities aside, joint accounts also keep you from worrying about who earned what money. You’ve committed to being partners for life. It doesn’t matter who earned what. It’s one shared pool of money that is funding your shared life together.

Just make sure you’ve set aside enough to keep food in your fridge, a roof over your head, and the collection agencies off your porch.

First look at your budget: Could you use that money to fund any of your true expenses more robustly? Have any new priorities come up that didn’t exist when you first started paying off your debt? If you decide your remaining debt is your most pressing priority, then sure, roll that cash flow into another balance.

Fund your true expenses first.

That’s the beauty of a (good) budget: it lets you see exactly how your spending affects the rest of your life.

Our individual approach to money sometimes stems from our upbringing.

Let me say this again: it’s okay to change your budget.

this time would be different. I, in particular, swore we

Instead, think of what you want, and go from there.

The fewer things you’re juggling—whether they’re bank accounts or debt payments—the more clarity you have to focus on what’s most important to you.