An ideal buffer is an entire month’s worth of expenses, but less can work too. You could slowly build up your buffer by adding a little bit more to your bills and life account until you have a month’s worth of expenses on hand.

If you don’t have enough of a buffer, you might need to spend s...

If you’re going out for a night of fun, leave your responsible bills and life debit card at home. Do not tempt yourself with it. When you’ve had a few libations and you’re feeling full of emotion and want to buy drinks for everyone at the bar, it’s best not to have that temptation present.

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Set up two separate checking accounts — one checking account for all the bills and living expenses and one checking account for all the fun and bs expenses.

• Fund each account with how much you need.

• Separate your spending — only pay for bills and living expenses out of the bills a...

Once a week, give your bills and life account some attention to make sure that things look normal.

For example, if you have a $1000 buffer, check in to make sure that you haven’t dipped below that buffer. And if you have, you can investigate further. You’ll also need to look at your fun ac...

The hedonic treadmill is a concept that says humans will keep relatively stable levels of happiness despite positive or negative events.

There isn’t anything inherently wrong with growth and improvement or with setting goals, achieving them and then setting higher ones. But the constant dri...

This method of managing your finances doesn’t require technical skills. It’s not like dunking a basketball or dribbling one. It only takes your time and effort to get it up and running and then some more time and effort to maintain it. There is no reason to think you can’t do either of those thin...

• Murphy’s law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
• Parkinson’s law: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion.
• Paco’s law: Your spending will equal what you have available to spend.

Not ...

How do you know if you’re overspending?

Look out for the signs:

1. You save less than 5 percent of your income

2. Your credit card balances aren’t going down

3. Your credit score is below 600

4. You have no e...