The Money Book: How to Implement a Percentage-Based Budget to Manage Your Finances

Amanda Claypool
12 min readSep 19, 2024

How do you manage your money?

Maybe you use a zero-based budget, assigning every dollar a job and putting your money to work.

Or maybe you follow the 50/30/20 method to help you allocate your paycheck between wants and needs.

Or maybe you don’t budget at all. Instead, you prefer to just keep an eye on your spending, making sure you stay within your means.

It doesn’t matter what your personal money philosophy is, but having a plan is important. You want to make sure your money — and the time you spend earning it — aligns with your goals.

The point of work isn’t so much about adding as many commas to your bank account as you can, it’s about making progress toward your goals.

The Money Book by Joseph D’Agnese and Denise Kiernan presents a financial management system designed for non-traditional workers like freelancers, part-timers, and self-employed business owners. Instead of creating a budget based on a regular biweekly paycheck, the authors offer a different process for prioritizing spending based on irregular and inconsistent income.

This article will cover the main thesis of the book, highlight some of its flaws, and emphasize why having a plan for…

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Amanda Claypool

I write about the future of the world as it’s unfolding. Download my reading list: https://bit.ly/3xvJZf6