Flat illustration of coins and bills neatly assigned into envelopes with nothing left over, a zero-based budget

The Zero-Based Budget: Give Every Dollar a Job

What a zero-based budget actually is A zero-based budget is a plan where your income minus your expenses equals zero — not because you spent everything, but because every dollar was assigned somewhere: bills, groceries, savings, investing, even fun. Nothing is left “unassigned,” because unassigned money is the money that mysteriously vanishes by the 25th …

Read more