Need budgeting help: started out of undergrad last summer and every month I spend basically my entire paycheck. How do you all control your expenses?

Buy an addicting video game like world of Warcraft. That'll drop your expenses quite a bit...

Set it up so that part of your paycheck goes to savings automatically (try 5% to start) then don't touch it.

EY1: Those two things are not correlated

I really like mint. I set up budgets for stuff like restaurants, shopping, etc and follow it closely. Also I transfer money from checking to savings a few days after payday so I don't consider that money I have.

You can't manage your own expenses but you can land a job at BCG? Da Fuq?!?!

50-30-20 rule. 50% fixed costs, 30% variable costs, 20% savings. Learn it, love it, live it.

I think limit for 401k is 18k. So if you hit that earlier, you'll free up cash. Whether you use that to fund other retirement accounts, personal investments, or just savings/emergency fund is your call. A good resource is Reddit's r/personal finance graphic. https://i.imgur.com/CcEVQAV.png

^ but more aggressive (10-20%).

Bain- Have about 400 dollars left over each month. Would have more if not for stupid doggy daycare. And yeah-have money going into my 401k. 15% I think but I'd have to check.

Pay yourself first: make another account and deposit money straight into that

So many high and mighty people around here 🙄. As if people who have great jobs never make mistakes. Humility people.

Come to DC OP- I'll look after your dog for free

Put the money set aside for savings into a bank account you can't access easily.

You're spending all of it? Are you pulling out $ for 401k? If you stash money away automatically and it never gets into your checking acct, it's a lot harder to spend.

10 years into worklife and still basically spend my entire paycheck. Kids in the city 💰

Also depends on how much $400 is out of your monthly take home. You can measure the percentage in gross or net. How much you save depends on your financial goals, namely if you want to retire early or not.

1 word: BUDGET

Mint Bills. Best app ever.

One-time mistakes, of course. The same mistake over and over again, not as common.

Track every penny you spend. If you'd like to chat about this, I teach personal finance. Shoot me an email, burneremail2684@gmail.com