Looking for ideas on how far out into the future to budget. Currently, I set a yearly budget in January and then do monthly changes before each month.

That sounds great, what isn't working for you right now?

@creamy-spoon-14332 as the year goes on, I find that my current changes are not going far enough into the future. And I don't want to redo the whole 2024 just yet. So I'm wondering if anyone does a fixed amount of months into the future, so that new expenses or income is accurately reflected going forward, and not just for this month.

I think I need to understand where you are drawing the line between your budget and your financial plan. For example, my full monte carlo financial plan has me saving for buying a used car every 8 years for x dollars. I don't include that in my annual budget though.

@mysterious-tomato-10057 very possible. So can you sharea bit more about how the financial Plan and budget converge? At what point do the long term big ticket items enter your monthly budget?

I do the annual and monthly budgets as well. If things change in middle of the year (the last couple of years I got raises mid year) I don't redo my annual budget. I just adjust each month going forward. I really just use the annual budget as a guide or what my monthly expenses can be in each category and what items I need to save up for throughout the year (ex yom tov item). To me the important budget is the monthly one.

Great question. It has to do with intra-year irregular expenses vs. inter-year irregularities. Financial plans are typically viewed on an annual basis (except for maybe the first year) so it is not concerned with the timing of when in 2031 Baruch will buy his Tesla in cash per the savings plan he programs into the system. For intra-year irregular items you can choose to account for them or not but as long as 1) your annual cash will support it and 2) you can lean on assets if you need to until your income catches up, it’s not really relevant in my opinion. To me allocating/building up a budget is only relevant for discretionary/variable items that you are holding yourselves to.

What's the value of an annual budget?

@brainy-article-82090 will elaborate more after yom tov on your question to me

I have a monthly budget that includes monthly contributions to various savings vehicles and monthly surpluses from "normal" spending that are allotted towards various larger purchases that are planned at the beginning of the month. I mostly stole it from @curved-toothbrush-84425. I'm just not sure what I would add with the annual budget.

@mysterious-tomato-10057 thank you.