Budget percentages

An ASU finance expert shares tips on building a budget and the best ways to allocate funds.

In this article published June 25, 2026, on WalletHub:

It is the planning for spending and reviewing spending that makes a budget a valuable tool. You can use a piece of paper with columns and write everything down. You can use a spreadsheet. You can use one of the many apps available. The key is that you plan how much you want to spend in each category monthly, once a year. Then, each month, you compare the spending against the category. But you also put a + or - on each category to see if you got value from that spending. A + indicates you got a lot of value (e.g., went on an amazing trip or found an outfit you really enjoyed wearing). A - indicates there wasn't the value (e.g., spent a lot on a dinner out that was mediocre). This allows us to focus on modifying behavior on those categories with a -.

— Debra Radway, associate teaching professor of finance