Money in, money out · Module 7 of 10
When the plan stops matching the month
What to do when your budget stops matching real life, including when it’s the budget that needs to change.
Key terms in When the plan stops matching the month
- Budget
A budget is a plan that sets out the income a person expects over a period and how it will be spent or set aside. It is built from past spending and expected earnings, and it can be adjusted when circumstances change. Government consumer sites describe it as a way to see whether bills can be paid on time.
Source: Federal Trade Commission, Budgets - Personal Finance Tips
- Automatic payment
An automatic payment is an arrangement in which a person authorizes a company to withdraw money from a bank account on a recurring basis. The amount can be fixed or can vary within an agreed range. It differs from a bank's bill-pay service, where the bank itself sends each payment on the customer's instruction.
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, How do automatic payments from a bank account work?
- Unexpected expense
An unexpected expense is a relatively small and unplanned cost, such as a car repair or a modest medical bill, that arises outside a household's regular spending. The Federal Reserve tracks how adults say they would cover one, whether through cash, savings, a credit card paid off right away, borrowing, selling something, or not at all. Households differ widely in how readily they can absorb such costs.
Every term on Lever is in the money glossary.
About this module
When the plan stops matching the month is part of Money in, money out, one of 15 subjects in Lever. It’s a short run of 6 lessons, about 15 minutes in all, so you can finish it in one sitting.
Every lesson takes one idea at a time. You read it with the math worked out step by step, answer a question that puts it to use, then see why the right answer is right and why the others aren’t.
It’s for anyone who was never taught this, and you don’t need to know anything first. Every lesson is free. Lever works out what you already know, so you can start here or let your path bring you to it.
More in Money in, money out
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1
What lands in your account
Read your payslip line by line and see where the gap between your salary and your paycheck goes.
5 lessons -
2
Your floor and your slack
Work out the least you need each month, the wiggle room above it, and what to do in a tight month.
13 lessons -
3
The size of a life after work
How much of your income to keep for later in life, and why your working years are the easiest time to build it.
5 lessons -
4
The pension that's already being built for you
What the pension deductions on your payslip are buying you, and what changes if you claim early or keep working.
5 lessons -
5
The costs retirement doesn't warn you about
The retirement costs people forget: relying on one income, what a partner is left with, and health costs that rise later.
5 lessons -
6
When there is no wage
Managing money without a regular paycheck: cash income, gig work, months with nothing coming in, and making savings last.
7 lessons -
8
Tracking without obsessing
A simple tracking habit you’ll keep, a quick monthly review, and how to stop a raise from quietly disappearing.
6 lessons -
9
Everything you own, minus everything you owe
Your net worth: everything you own minus everything you owe, and why watching it over the years tells you so much.
6 lessons -
10
When the money itself shrinks
How to protect your money when prices rise fast: what to buy ahead, and what inflation does to your debts and your pay.
5 lessons
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It’s part of Money in, money out. Lever will bring it to you when you’re ready, or you can go straight there.