Some people are so horrified to see their spending totals that they vow to take drastic actions right away, but Mint’s founder advises a gradual approach. “If you cut too hard and too fast, you’ll never stick with it and you’ll hate yourself,” Patzer says. “If you’re spending $500 a month on restaurants and you try to set a new budget of $200, you’ll end up saying, ‘Forget that!’ It’s too hard. But if you reduce to $450 or $400, you can make that without radically changing your lifestyle. Then the next month you can go another $50 or $100. Keep the monthly changes to 20 percent until you get
...more
