This is NPR's Life Kit and welcome to your very own personal finance tune-up.

We are dedicating this whole week of Life Kit to helping you get your money in order.

Each day, we're going to bring you an episode that will

get you on the right track to take ownership of your finances. I'm Chris Arnold. I

cover personal finance and consumer protection for NPR and I am going to be your coach,

your financial, personal trainer, your all around biggest fan because I know that you can do this and

I also know that sometimes this stuff can feel like a chore, but it's all in

service of letting you do the things that you really want in life.

And of course, look, I mean, we're in the middle of this coronavirus pandemic that's hit the economy really hard and some people have lost work and need to manage every penny that you have and it'll be good stuff in here for you.

This is an important time for all of us to be thinking about money.

A quick note, this episode was reported before the current pandemic obviously, so you'll hear

mentions of travel or going out to eat

which we know it's not exactly easy or possible or smart to do in a lot of places but

the basics of budgeting stay same, and let's get started. Budgeting, that word alone, I mean, it sounds awful, right? Keeping

track of everything you spend money on, joyless spreadsheets. But if it's such a drag though, why are some of you talking about budgeting like this?

I have had such a positive experience budgeting recently.

And I am a budgeting wizard.

I'm actually super jagged about it.

It's like all I want to talk about.

A budgeting wizard, I love that guy,

super jazzed, all they want to talk about,

what is going on with these people. What is their secret?

...