Experts agree: You don't need to budget as long as you do one thing
Budgets may not be as mandatory as they sometimes seem.
To reach your savings goals, you don't necessarily have to create a highly-detailed budget that allocates money for categories like clothes, coffee and bars. In fact, as long as you establish how much you need to save each month for retirement and other major purchases, and you actually set that amount aside, you don't have to budget at all.
That's according to Nick Holeman, certified financial planner at Betterment.
Set your goals, make sure that you're saving enough to reach them, and don't worry about the day-to-day expenses, he says : "As long as you know how much you need to be saving and you're saving enough each month, who really cares where the rest of the money goes?"
Kimmie Greene, money expert at Intuit and spokeswoman for Mint.com, offers similar advice.
"People can get really hyper-focused on spending and think, 'How much am I spending on Uber versus taking the bus?' Or, 'How much am I spending on coffee?'" she tells CNBC.
Rather than scrutinizing daily expenses, she encourages people to think: "As long as I can save this much per month or quarter or year, it doesn't really matter how I spend my money. I just have to know that I'm getting to the savings goal that matters for me at this point in my life."
"That number, that savings goal, will change over time because life circumstances change," she continues, "but we should all have an idea of what that number I want to hit in a given period of time is."
As long as you're reaching your savings goal, feel free to spend on lattes, shoes or whatever brings you joy.
Don't have a savings goal yet? Start by checking out how much you should have saved at every age .
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