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Lifestyle Design & Intentional Budgeting
A book about spending on purpose rather than cutting everything a little. It shows how to find what you value, build a spending plan that runs itself, cut hard where money gives you little, keep raises from disappearing, price the life you actually want, share all of this with a partner and family, and keep the plan honest as life changes.
Chapters7
Reading time40 min
Worked examples21
Updated2026-10-01
What you will be able to do
- Name your top values and sort your spending into essentials, spending that serves those values, and everything else.
- Set up a pay-yourself-first plan, check it against the 50/30/20 split, and automate it so it runs without daily tracking.
- Run a value-per-dollar review and a subscription audit, and decide in advance how much of each raise to save.
- Price the life you want, turn it into a savings target, and choose which levers will close the gap.
- Hold a regular money conversation with a partner and run a yearly review that keeps the plan matched to your life.
Contents
7 CHAPTERS · ABOUT 40 MIN- 01Spending by Your Values Why careful budgets still fail, what research says about which spending improves wellbeing, and how to name your values and sort your spending into essentials, aligned spending and everything else.7 min2 computed
- 02Spending Plans That Run Themselves Paying yourself first, using the 50/30/20 split as a check rather than a cage, envelopes and sinking funds for the categories that overflow, and the order in which to automate everything.6 min3 computed
- 03Cutting Ruthlessly, Spending Lavishly How to cut hard where spending gives you little and spend generously, without guilt, where it gives you a lot: a value-per-dollar review, a subscription audit, a yearly renegotiation of fixed bills and a plan for guilt-free spending.6 min3 computed
- 04Raises Without Lifestyle Creep When spending more is a good use of a raise, why upgrades fade, what letting each raise drift into spending costs in years of work, and how to decide the split of the next raise before it arrives.6 min4 computed
- 05Designing the Life First, Then the Numbers Working backwards from the life you want: describe an ordinary year of it, price it honestly, turn the lifestyle into a savings target and the one-off goals into sinking funds, and choose the levers that close the gap.5 min4 computed
- 06Money as a Couple and a Family Why money arguments run deep, how to make money conversations routine, how to choose between joint, separate and hybrid accounts, how to bring debt into a shared plan, and how to teach children about money at each age.6 min2 computed
- 07Staying Intentional Over Decades A rhythm of monthly, quarterly and yearly reviews, a transition budget for the big changes you can see coming, how to notice when your values have shifted, and how to keep the plan going through setbacks.5 min3 computed
CALCULATORS USED IN THIS BOOK