The common sense approach to avoiding an economic crisis during an economic
downturn is to budget when times are good as well as when times are bad.
Unfortunately, many people don't think about budgets until finances are
limited.

I saw a new story about a young girl, who became a high income singer,
with a contract from a major media company. Now, her 1.2 million
dollar home is being auctioned off. Where did she go wrong? Is she any
different than most Americans in her position?  The answer is 1. Apparently
she did not understand how to budget the money she earned and she did not
understand the limits of the money she earned . 2. The answer to the second
question is, NO, she is not any different than most Americans.

Budgeting is not taught in most high schools and colleges or graduate school.
Because of that we even have PHD's and MD's (doctor of philosophy and medical
doctors), going broke due of mismanagement of money or the lack of budgeting
skills.

In this article I will give you a few quick tips to a gorilla budget:

1. Live below your means no matter what your financial status.

2. If you make a lot, or are awarded a lot of money, pretend like it has to
last you 100 years.

3. Be conservative with your purchases.

4. Buy a home and car with a monthly note that will allow you to put
money in an emergency savings and a long term savings account for vacation
or future purchases.

5. Decide what you can afford based on the above and make a written budget,
that budget should include cost to run your home, to get to work, to go on
vacation, and to save, save, save for now and the future.

6. If you have an addiction to expensive "things" work on that problem. That
is the number 2 problem that causes poverty with people who make a lot of money,
behind the number 1 problem, which is "budgeting ignorance".

7. If you work on a contract like the singer above probably did, you have to be
especially careful with spending because you have a big tax bill at the end of
every year based on your big income.

8. Remember that it takes a long time to create a financially sustainable budget,
because you have to consider cost that you normally don’t think about.