The 50/30/20 budget rule: a simple plan for European savers, and where it breaks
The 50/30/20 budget rule for European savers, explained plainly: how to split take-home pay, what a need is, and what to do when rent breaks the 50% ceiling.
Budgeting & Saving
Frameworks for tracking your spending, automating your savings, and building the buffer that quietly props up everything else.
Featured
Our best attempts.
Loud budgeting: how to turn down plans you can't afford without shame
Someone's booked a hen weekend that costs a week's groceries. Loud budgeting is how you say no to it without sounding cheap, broke, or mean.
Fix your savings, stay flexible, or build a ladder?
Rates fell, then the ECB hiked. Nobody can call the next move, and a savings ladder is built for exactly that uncertainty.
Why you can't save money (it was never willpower)
You keep failing the willpower test because it was never a willpower test. Change the set-up, automate one transfer, and saving happens without you.
More posts
How to track your net worth: a monthly guide for Europeans
Track net worth across countries and currencies with one home currency, one rate source, and one date each month. A plain, repeatable habit.
The envelope system and cash stuffing: does it still work in a cashless Europe?
The cash envelope budgeting system still works in a cashless Europe, but only if the empty bucket can actually stop your card. Cash, pots, and sub-accounts compared.
The subscription audit: how to find and cancel recurring expenses
Run a 30-minute subscription audit: find every recurring charge, cancel it, and use your EU bank and SEPA rights to make it stop.
Saving for short-term vs long-term goals: where to put your money
Match each pot to its timeline: keep one-year money in cash, five-year money in government bonds, and ten-year-plus money in diversified funds.