Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why would I choose The Easy Budget over other personal budgeting tools?

2. My partner’s paydays and mine are not the same, and even occur at a different frequency.
How can this tool bring clarity to chaos?

3. Why would I choose a workbook over a computer spreadsheet?

4. Why is it calendar-based and not just a computer spreadsheet?

5. If the calendar is the heart of The Easy Budget, why would I purchase the complete workbook?

6. How does picking the start month for the calendar portion of the budget benefit me?

7. Why will The Easy Budget help me where other budgeting tools failed?

8. Budgeting, what’s in it for me?

1. “Why would I choose The Easy Budget over other personal budgeting tools?”

It accomplishes what other budgets can’t, it captures reality!

Other budgets force you to manage your finances monthly or yearly, based on estimates and/or averages.

The Easy Budget is based on pay periods and captures your actual income(s) and expense(s) as they unfold in real life.

2. My partner’s paydays and mine are not the same, and even occur at a different frequency.
How can this tool bring clarity to chaos?

The Easy Budget captures and manages all income scenarios. Your household may have any combination of: individual or multiple incomes, changing incomes, or different pay cycles. The Easy Budget works without any compromise or modification by focusing on cash flow on a pay-by-pay basis.

3. Why would I choose a workbook over a computer spreadsheet?

It’s simpler, easier to edit (pencil), portable, requires no batteries, not threatened by computer viruses, free of hardware problems, comfortable, familiar, and you don’t have to compete with others for computer time.

4. Why is it calendar-based and not just a computer spreadsheet?

The calendar format is familiar - a natural fit. It brings order to chaos and renders the complex mathematical concepts of cyclical events and complementary events invisible and redundant. The science behind the calendar has already been done, giving you a familiar product that functions seamlessly and effectively.

5. If the calendar is the heart of The Easy Budget, why would I purchase the complete workbook?

The calendar is the minimum that’s required for giving a clear picture of your financial situation. The Easy Budget complete workbook includes tools for tracking and identifying opportunities for fiscal improvement. More important than providing you with generic advice, the (1) Monthly General Expense Sheets, (2) tracking sheets for many common household expenses, and (3) the Income Recording Sheet, all structure the information you put in, making it easier to identify strengths and weaknesses.

6. How does picking the start month for the calendar portion of the budget benefit me?

Our lives do not unfold from January to December. Life events happen as a combined result of planned and unplanned events. A desire to learn, a desire for improved financial independence, a new job, a lost job, retirement, moving, buying a home, selling a home, bankruptcy, a financial windfall, a wedding, a divorce, births, deaths, injuries, and reduced health to name a few. Life-changing events require us to take a serious look at our financial position(s). It’s not always as simple as a New Year’s resolution.

7. Why will The Easy Budget help me where other budgeting tools failed?

It’s natural, simple, and accurate. It’s reality. Common budgeting tools want you to see your life based on an imposed model - models founded on forecasts, averages, estimates or statistical norms. They want you to fit into a one-size-fits-all package, one easily explained in general terms and that is mass marketable. The Easy Budget captures your reality, your situation and establishes a starting place for you. Maps require a point of reference… one that shows “YOU ARE HERE”.

8. Budgeting, what’s in it for me?

Ask yourself, what is the cost of doing nothing? The answer lies within too-high expenses, avoidable late payment fees and missed opportunities.

In my presentation “The Income Outcome – Minding Your Own Business”, I highlight that employers hire people out of need. Employees perform the responsibilities essential to the profitability of an organization, some more effective than others. You are the most important asset to your family, managing your life to get the things you need and desire. Your income drives your lifestyle, which is your own business. It would be good to devote at least the same or more effort to your private financial affairs as you would give to an employer. Yours Truly, Robert Shaw.