"Money makes the world go 'round." (I thought that was gravity...) "Gravity makes the world go 'round."  Or was that, "The Mint makes the Coin become round?"  Or,  "Mint settles your stomach..."

"Money talk" can be upsetting to some Tender constitutions (hence the Mint), so we want to ease your worried mind.  We all need money (unless we're dead).  Therefore, the better we are at managing money, the more we'll keep and the more we won't have to make later.  EVERY person/family needs a budget.  Start there.  We were living paycheck to paycheck until we started a simple budget:

Write down what you make every payday./for the year.
Write down all your bills every month/for the year and multiply by 12 to get their totals for the year.
Divide everything by the number of paydays for you in a year.
Then divide those numbers into bi-weekly or whatever frequency you get paid, so if you get paid bi-weekly, then there are usually 24 or 26 paydays/paychecks a year.
Then portion your paycheck out every two weeks to cover each bill's requirement for that pay period, so that by the end of the year, (or end of the month) there will be enough savings to pay the bill.
We've created our own spreadsheet budget from scratch (although it has grown over the years as we have added to it as we think of new expenses.)  We pretty much have everything that we've ever thought of or had to buy or wanted to buy and put it on this list.  You can use this template to create your own custom budget.  (One of the greatest things about budgets is that they let you save up for the things you want as well as the things you need.)  You can start with zero (we did) and now, everything is being paid off, we are saving for the things we want, we are saving for things we will need in the future (like a new roof and new appliances) and the budget even found us extra money that we are now investing for our retirement!
A little work in the beginning, some maintaining of the budget during the year, and a budget will create opportunities for you and set you free!  You no longer have to worry if eating out will put you "over" this month... with a budget, you can see exactly how much you have to spend at your favorite restaurant.  And, if there's not enough in the budget this month, you can edit your budget to reallocate money from another area to set aside more for eating out next month! (Or, you could skip eating out one week to save up for a nicer meal with double your allocation next week!)  Budgets = Power.

Our budget template (encoding into web format... processing...)

 On a separate Note:
$3000 invested @ 5% would yield $150 in dividends/year - enough to pay for this website every year - forever... or 10 domain renewals every year - forever.  (We could own 10 domains...) 

(and yes... the Green background depicts how much money we have rightn ow...
look at that... not even enough money to afford typing lessons... (Hunny, add a line for typing lessons to the budget... $4/Every 2 Weeks should be a good starting point and we'll edit that up or down when we find out how much it's actually going to cost for those.  Thanks!)
You could pad our budget with the extra you find in your budget... or you could invest that into your children's or grandchildren's future, or you could just spend it selfishly on Pogs, Pez, Deoderant, or shoes... wait, those last two should already be on your budget, especially the former.  So, before you spend your extra on a new flameless cigarette lighter (as I did - because it was cool - though I didn't even smoke), think about partnering with us!
(This is not Legal advice, just an option that is working fo rus... Rus?  Who's Russ?  And why is budgeting working for him?)

Robert Kiyosaki; Author of RICH DAD POOR DAD - An Excellent book premise that states you don't need to be a millionaire to survive into old age - you just need enough money coming in every month to pay all your bills and you can live all the rest of your days without working not because you have to, but because you want to.  Suze Orman is also good.  (And paying off your house might not make you as much in the long run as only paying the minimum and then just investing the rest in the stock market - but it depends on your situation.)

Being a millionaire is not my definition of "success"... because if that's all you have, then, eventually, that money will dwindle to nothing - and you will be right back where you started - living a life (whether you realize it or not) of ever-increasing stress directly proportionate to how much money you have left... That is an ever-increasing stressful life.  That sounds like bondage to me - not freedom - not success.

However, if your expenses every month are $3000, but you have $3000 of income coming in from all your various passive income-producing sources, well, then you can quit your job and still live free of fear and stress... forever!
Think about it.

I have found playing this game, Cashflow, has taught me so much
about this idea... (and it's still teaching me).