Budgeting
Budgeting when your income changes every month
Stop forecasting. Build a one-month buffer, then spend last month's income this month — it turns a variable income into a fixed one you already hold.
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All guides
Every BudgetNest guide, sorted by where you are.
Each one is dated with the month it was last verified. Start anywhere — they are written to stand alone.
Budgeting
Plans that survive a bad month.
Budgeting
The 50/30/20 budget, fixed for high rent
Fifty per cent needs, thirty per cent wants, twenty per cent savings. Here is the rule as written, and the adjusted split to use when your rent refuses to cooperate.
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Budgeting
Sinking funds: for the bills you can see coming
Car servicing, insurance renewals and Christmas are not emergencies — they arrive on schedule. A sinking fund is how you pay for them without a credit card.
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Budgeting
Zero-based budgeting, step by step
Give every dollar a job before the month starts. It is the most effective budget for irregular income — and the most honest about where your money actually goes.
Read the guide →Saving
Emergency funds, sinking funds and where to keep them.
Saving
How much emergency fund do you actually need?
Three months of essential spending, not three months of income — here is how to work out your number, where to keep it, and how to get there on an ordinary salary.
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Saving
High-yield savings vs CD, decided
One keeps your money reachable at a moving rate; the other locks it away at a fixed one. The deciding question is whether you can name the date you will need it.
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Saving
How to save your first $1,000 in 8 weeks
Eight to twelve weeks, and almost none of it comes from cutting coffee. Here is where the money actually comes from, in the order that produces it fastest.
Read the guide →Debt payoff
Cards, loans and the order to clear them in.
Debt
Snowball vs avalanche: which one people finish
The avalanche costs $227 less. The snowball gets more people to the finish line. Here is the same $18,400 debt run through both, month by month.
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Debt
What actually improves a credit score
Two factors drive about two thirds of your score. Almost everything else you have read about credit repair is noise around the edges.
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Debt
Is a 0% balance transfer worth it?
Balance plus fee, divided by the number of 0% months. If you cannot pay that figure monthly, the card costs more than the debt you are escaping.
Read the guide →Banking & bills
Fees, accounts and recurring costs.
Banking & bills
14 recurring bills you can cut this weekend
A two-hour audit of what leaves your account automatically typically frees $80 to $210 a month — immediately, and without a raise. Here is the list, in order.
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