How to Build a Simple Budget When You Don't Know Where to Start

If the word "budget" makes you want to close the tab, you're not alone. Most budgeting advice is built for people who already have their finances under control. This is for the rest of us.

Forget spreadsheets with forty categories. Start with three buckets: Must (rent, bills, food, transport), Future (savings, debt payoff), and Life (everything else).

The order matters more than the amounts. Must gets paid first because it has to. Future gets paid second — before Life touches a single dollar. Whatever's left after those two is yours to spend without guilt, because it's already been decided.

Start absurdly small if you have to. $10 a week into Future is still a habit forming. The amount matters far less in month one than simply proving to yourself you can move money on purpose instead of reactively.

This exact framework, plus a tracker that does the math for you, is built into RESET 90.