Budgeting

Welcome to the Million in 10 budgeting page. Here you will find all articles associated with my lessons and insights on saving.

Budgeting although not key to our financial plans did come into play when I decided to take a sabbatical. At that point in time it was important to know what we were spending from month to month and how long it would take for our cash sabbatical savings to run dry.

Whether you are in debt, have financial goals or are simply curious about what you spend and more importantly when you spend it a budget is a must have to you.

Have a look at the articles posted. If you have thought of your own on what you read I invite you to leave a comment on the post and I will reply as promptly as possible.

Get what you need, not what you want

After 18 years of cellphone ownership I finally did it: I broke mine. Well not so much broke it but more like drowned it; took a swim with it. It didn’t take it that well. I tried the rice thing, hoping it would suck the moisture out and it would miraculously turn back on. Alas, it didn’t. [...]

We Finally Cut the Cord (continued)

It has been some weeks now that we cut the cable. Our heads haven’t exploded yet, which is a good thing (I did not rule that out from happening). As a matter of fact we’ve hardly noticed. No, we no longer get The walking dead but we’ll survive (as I’m sure will they). We no longer [...]

8 Money Tricks That Can Save Young Adults From A Financial Disaster

The following article is a guest post by Stacy Barbee. How I wish money tricks were taught in schools. In our times, schools and colleges primarily focused on obtaining good grades at the end of the academic year. And, that trend is still going on. The 2 fundamental aspects of an awesome financial life are: (i) [...]

Taxation without representation and hotel points

Just read an article by my friend James over at RetirementSavvy on the fairness of taxes. I think I lean the same way. This year I paid zero in US taxes and feel a little guilty about that (I’ll write about this one later) but for some reason my old homestead, The Netherlands, took some of [...]

4 reasons you need a budget

Why budget? Well, besides the 4 reasons you need a budget below, it is simply a shame not to. You owe it to yourself. All of us spend between 1 and 2 decades getting prepared in school to make a living. Unfortunately that is where most of us stop. We learn how to make a [...]

Millionin10 2015 in review

There we have it, another year has passed and an interesting one it has been for us. This was the year I started this blog. It has been the first full year that I’ve been off of work and as a result we’ve tried to live by a fairly strict budget. We’ve had a shitty [...]

Employee Discounts

We’ve all heard it once, “I’m working at Crate & Barrel just to get the 10% discount”. Many in retail make full use of the discounts their employer provides. Retail isn’t the only one offering perks though. Corporate America is big in getting you perks. I’m not talking about the free logo-infested polo shirts or [...]

Extra money? Stop it, you’re doing it all wrong!

You know the story line: Clark is expecting the Christmas bonus to pay for the money already put down for a swimming pool. Frank Shirley, Clark’s boss turns out to be a crook and the bonus doesn’t come. Things go south from there real quick and real bad. Yes, its from National Lampoon’s Christmas vacation [...]

Investing your emergency fund

That’s right, I invest my emergency fund. I’ve pointed out that, if credit cards are paid off monthly, they serve just fine for an emergency as long as you can free the money to pay those cards again at the end of the month (by selling stock for example). I’m getting a bit of push [...]

Can I afford that pet?

Without exception, whenever the cashier at Petco would say that will be $18.88 for the cat-litter, I would say “For my cat to poop on”. Lame I know but still, pretty crazy, the things we spend money on. It has been several months now since Daisy, our cat, passed away. We miss her, she had [...]