Like others in this discussion, I created a spreadsheet as well to keep track of my financial activity. I have 4 columns, one for me, one for my wife, one for m

Like others in this discussion, I created a spreadsheet as well to keep track of my financial activity. I have 4 columns, one for me, one for my wife, one for my dogs, and one for the family. In the same table, I have a budget that is computed as the average cost of the last 3-6 months (which can be considered a good baseline) to make us informed about how we are deviating from it. Common sense/ things that I'm applying: - Never spend more than what you earn - Save at least 20-30% to create an emergency fund & personal savings fund. You may also be interested to read a recent & related HN post / course on this topic (CS 007: Personal Finance for Engineers – Stanford University 2017-20) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21631834 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21631834