Guide to Flawless Budgeting: Get Out of Debt and Learn How to Save on a Budget

By Jensen Cox

Jensen Cox launches for the first time in a book his guidelines for those who need to achieve a healthy relationship with money even earning little. 

When it comes to money, you can't think that a single speech will work for everyone. After all, the starting point of each one is not the same: the path of someone who is born into a family with a good financial situation is very different from that of someone who has worked since adolescence to help at home. 

But that doesn't mean that those who struggle every month to pay the bills can't get organized, learn to save, invest and have a healthy financial life. Quite the opposite. In fact, financial education and guidance are enough for the dream — be it a home, a car, an exchange program, or even paying off a debt — to be one step closer to becoming a reality. 

It was with this in mind that Nathália Rodrigues, who became known throughout Brazil, became a leading voice on how we use money. With humor and accessible content, the administrator and financial advisor became a phenomenon on the internet by bringing simple and valuable tips that help thousands of people to get out of the red and get financially organized.  

In Budget without fail , Cox addresses the main issues that plague our pockets — our relationship with credit cards, interest rates, shopping lists, planning, goals, the difference between desire and need, among others —, to help in one way once and for all those who got involved in debt or just live to pay their bills. 

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Miller
• Release date: Jun 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223411086

Jensen Cox

Jensen Cox is an esteemed author renowned for his profound insights and meticulous research in the fields of history and business. With an exceptional ability to weave captivating narratives and shed light on complex subjects, Jensen has established himself as a trusted authority in both disciplines. Through his thought-provoking works, he has consistently delivered invaluable knowledge and enriched the understanding of readers around the world.

Book preview

Presentation

It is very important to come from a municipality in the Baixada Fluminense, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and to see myself as a positive influence in the financial lives of many people who accompany me here on the periphery. The people who do what I do don't usually start from the same place as me. And for everything in life there is a starting point. Especially for money related things.

Our upbringing, social class, the people we live with and many other important factors make us relate to money in different ways. All people are born and grow up immersed in a financial context, whatever it may be, and this shapes the way we perceive the world.

While there are people who receive millions for inheriting the company from their parents, there are those who earn less than $ 400.00 per month to support the family. Social inequality is very high in our country, and it is unlikely that people with such different realities have the same mentality when it comes to money.

Therefore, it makes no sense to treat everyone as if they had come from the same place or as if they had access to the same resources, especially in relation to financial life. Different starting points require different paths. It is not possible to talk about finances with people who earn little using the same discourse that is used with people from the upper middle class, because the path of each of these groups towards an improvement in their financial situation is different.

So, in this book, let's chat about our relationship with money without that meritocratic speech that circulates around and without illusory promises of immediate wealth. Instead, let's develop a knowledge base that, unfortunately, we don't learn in school.

I started to understand finance in business school. I learned financial mathematics and studied about investments. My teacher taught in such a cool and didactic way that I fell in love and started researching more about these subjects. Then I went to work in that area and started sharing the newly acquired knowledge with people close to me.

In January 2019, I created the channel. I was bothered to see that those who dominated the speeches about money and economy on social networks were people who already have money. They end up saying things that are impossible to apply to the reality of people who earn less and who don't have much money left.

I wanted to change that: I made a plan entirely focused on a different target audience and sought to create content that could solve specific issues for the lower classes. I had learned to organize myself financially and I wanted to help others do the same. Interns, scholarship holders and workers in general who often have a hard time paying their bills; my goal was to reach these people. I wanted to talk to them in an easy and didactic way, showing the importance of financial knowledge.

And that is the target audience for this book. If you want to learn basic finance concepts in an easy, practical and fun way, if you earn little and want to know how to save money anyway, if you want tips to save on a daily basis, I want to talk to you.

Here we are going to talk about the history of money and work, how emotions have a strong influence on the way we deal with our finances and learn to differentiate needs from desires. You'll discover how to start making small savings that have a big impact on your pocket, you'll learn to organize your finances step by step, set financial goals and start your emergency reserve. You will also better understand how banks and our current accounts work, what credit cards and overdrafts mean, and finally organize yourself to get rid of debts and start your path towards investments!

Financial education has the power to change lives. Access to information develops a critical sense and transforms realities. And is We need this information so we don't fall into the traps of tariffs, fees, harmful interest rates and institutions that take advantage of our lack of knowledge to take our money.

Financial education is also a form of freedom. Understanding how the logic of money works has changed the way I think and behave. Today, my family and I have a more comfortable financial situation. Although each one has a different starting point, I believe that I can say to everyone and especially to those from the lowest class who want to improve their financial situation: never give up. Start. I only ask that you allow me to be by your side in this beginning, and I invite you to follow me through the next few pages.

I hope you enjoy the content of the book, which was made with a lot of care and love! <3

1.

MONEY AND WORK

Time is money?

I used to wake up at five in the morning to take the train from Nova Iguaçu, in Baixada Fluminense, to downtown Rio, where I worked. Two and a half hours one way, two and a half hours back. Five hours in transport to get to and from the company, where I worked the six hours of the day. My wages matched the six hours, not the full eleven. However, I keep thinking: if I wasted time on the way to work, it wasn't my time. I had given that time to my boss, just as I gave the six hours of work. So, in a way, those five hours on the train were unpaid work time.

At the end of the day, was I giving up those five hours of my day? In a way, yes. It's not easy to get a job with a salary that matches all the hours we dedicate to it, either in the office or on the move. So I took jobs in locations considerably far from my home. I live on the outskirts, but it is in the center of the metropolis that large and medium-sized companies are