When you finally have a budget that works in real life

Ellevest’s lead money coach, Rachel Sanborn Lawrence, often says that if you only pay attention to one piece of the money puzzle, make it your budget. It’s the key to feeling in control and making progress on your goals — from living within your means to saving for emergencies to paying off debt to investing for retirement.

Here at Ellevest, we talk a lot about the 50/30/20 “rule,” which is a simple and flexible method of making a budget. But real talk: It’s not always the easiest method to keep track of when it comes to using your budget IRL.

Enter: the one-number approach, which is designed to make those daily spending decisions easier. Read all about it below.

In budget solidarity,

Deedi Brown, she/her
Senior Content Manager

de∙ci∙sion fa∙tigue

When your ability to make good decisions diminishes because you’ve already made so many decisions already. Ex: Thanks to decision fatigue, people have been shown to make worse money decisions later in the day.

Small $$ win of the week

“I achieved my emergency savings goal that I set last year. Now I can move on to my next savings goal, and this one is a lot more fun!”

— Maricruz, an Elle Raiser from El Paso, TX

Share your latest small money win with us here.

Ellevest members get discounts on 1:1 budgeting sessions.