What are your thoughts on budgeting?  Is it necessary?  Is it helpful? Harmful?  Does it make us focus on the wrong things?  Is it irresponsible not to budget?  We asked folks we admired to share their thoughts with us.

Bauer Wann, Rupa Patel, Eleanor Trinh | Co-founders of GEST

Starting a business was not an easy decision for us. The three of us put in starter capital for product development and have continued to personally invest into the business as it grows. We knew that GEST was unlikely to be profitable within the first 1-3 years, and this understanding made us more aware of how we spend. Our bootstrapping habits came naturally as we became more careful on budgeting for non-essential items. Not having vacation days also reduced our spending, for good and bad, as we are now spending all our free time working and networking! Read more>>

Jesse Ernst | Coach – Financial Coach, Small Business Coach, Lifestyle Coach

My wife and I have lived on a budget for nearly our entire married lives, we still use cash envelopes and pay close attention to our spending. To many people this sounds like a limiting way of living, but for us it has allowed us to prioritize what is truly important rather than always living in the moment and living a paycheck to paycheck lifestyle that so many live. By following our budget, prioritizing our spending and staying on the same page with our finances as a couple, we have been able to travel to so many amazing places. From South America, Europe, Asia and many new places across the U.S. Traveling is one of our shared passions, and we attribute our ability to go and explore the world to the budgeting process and lifestyle we have chosen to live. Read more>>

Alejandra Markenson | Spanish teacher

I’ve been an early education teacher for 9 years. Five of the nine years I’ve been teaching Spanish in a full immersion program. Teaching Spanish has been my passion since I was in preschool. I would pretend play with my dolls and vividly remember giving my dolls detention so I could get an extra thirty minutes of teaching. I was let go from the preschool I was working at and forced into unemployment due to COVID in March 2020. The uncertainty of the school surviving the unknown pandemic and my career taking a pause was very frightening. Even after the world shut down, I stayed in contact with the parents of my students. Read more>>