TFS Update: Three reasons to keep budgeting when the world is crumbling
A pep talk
I’ve been giving out a lot of “three reasons to keep going” pep talks to my YNAB coaching clients lately; figured you could use one too.
To start with, let’s reframe budgeting as having and executing a spending plan. If your budgeting is a rigid, shame-based practice, this pep talk isn’t going to help. Instead, I’m talking about budgeting as having a spending plan that flexes with your priorities and gives you a framework for using your money intentionally.
1.
Even if you’ve never been on an airplane (and about 1 in 10 Americans haven’t) you’ve likely heard the expression “put your own mask on first”. This is shorthand for making sure you take care of your most elemental needs before you help others. In a high altitude emergency, that means securing an oxygen mask on yourself so you can stay alert enough to tend to your family and neighbors.
In a world crumbling, a budget helps you make sense of how much of your money you need to reserve for taking care of your basic needs before you start using it to tend to the urgent needs around you. There are six gofundme links in my instagram stories right now for friends of friends, three new emails in my inbox from nonprofits losing governmental funding, and two households on my block out of work from the same. My budget helps me know how much money I can give away confidently.
2.
Look, if you’ve lately wanted to start an email “Apologies for the delay in reply, I was too paralyzed with news horror to cope with email last week” well, me too. I might have been unable to write something coherent about a networking opportunity, but I still found it comforting to keep categorizing my spending. I am not in control of inflation or whether layoffs hit my household, but I am in control of whether to go for a coffee and in control of deciding where that coffee fits in my budget.
Budgeting can serve as a mindfulness practice of where the boundaries of what you can control are, and remind you that yes, even as societal infrastructure unravels, you do still have some control. Building historical data by continuing to use YNAB also gives me the opportunity to reality check how inflation is impacting my household. I compared our all-in food spending (groceries + dining out) for the last twelve months against the twelve months ended six months ago. Groceries are up 3% and overall food up 4.3%. That’s a lot for six months of inflation, but it’s also less than I would have guessed.
3.
At this point in 2025, the headlines are a pretty good counter to imposter syndrome. Behind on email? No worries, at least you didn’t accidentally include a reporter in a classified group chat. Not as good with money as you’d like to be? That’s okay, you’re still better at understanding money than DOGE. That’s right: I’m telling you to keep budgeting out of spite. Even if you’re not great at it, continuing to hone your budgeting skills and plan for Future You’s financial needs officially makes you a more competent human than the people in the headlines.
Budgeting, however mundane, is an act of hope. It’s concrete action supporting the belief that however bad things are, they’re not so bad money will become worthless and we’ll be find ourselves in a strictly barter economy. Continuing to budget means you believe that you’ll still need to eat next month, that it’s worth balancing little treats against your debt load, that spending intentionally matters.
Keep budgeting so you know how much you can spend to help others. Keep budgeting so you can feel in control of something. Keep budgeting to reinforce spite-fueled hope.