Hello, Winebbers. My name is Jesse Meekham, and this is

podcast number 85 for You Need a Budget, where we teach you four rules to

help you stop living paycheck to paycheck, get out of debt, and save more money. I received an email

from Brett a little bit ago, a week ago or so, and he was asking me specifically how Wynab can, let's see where it is, how to use

Wynab as a freelancer where my monthly income is not fixed?

He says, I have some fixed expenses and can create a budget based on those and variable costs.

But do you have a recommended workflow for budgeting for a

a fluctuating income.

Yes, I do.

When I first built Wineb, that was on a variable income, not wildly variable, as some freelancers are, but it was variable nonetheless.

And I saw that it did not work to predict income, because it was always wrong and you would spend all this time going down to the

penny especially at that time because we were so broke. I'd spend all that time

basically balancing things and following Rule 1 and giving every dollar a job and then the amount

that you guessed was wrong.

And the amount you guessed is always, always wrong.

So what I would recommend first for freelance variable income situations

or even those on salary is just budget the money you have on hand.

So any time new money comes into your life, as our teachers always say in our classes,

ask yourself what does that money have to do before you're paid again.

And you may not know when you are paid again, but you still will know what the money needs to do.

Everyone has a really good sense of the next most important thing.

There's always a lot of clarity there.

...