Personal Finance with Student Loans (Part 1): Budgeting

I am often asked by colleagues about how I manage my families money. Or more accurately, I love the discipline of personal finance to be measurably satisfying so I never stop talking about it. I'm the guy that entered receipts into Quicken for 10 years for what appeared to be religious reasons. So, perhaps being exhausted with my line of conversation, (rarely) interested people break down and ask me about it.

First if you need a good framework on what to do with what money you have, Start Here.  

If you notice, Step 0 is Budgeting & Planning.  

Fundamentally, you have to spend less than you earn.  In order to do that you have to first clearly understand how much you spend an how much you earn.  Planning/Budgeting helps you do that with precision (and accuracy).

Think of "Planning" as the words part of the plan: I want a house, I want to pay student loans with interest rates greater than 4%, I want a new gaming computer.  Think of Budgeting as the "Numbers" part of the plan:  I will spe…