In this session, I will share my 8 years of experience using the envelope budgeting technique for personal budgeting in our modern digital world. I will discuss the benefits, the challenges, some hacks and other tips and tricks which may help you adopt and adapt to this lifestyle and be more aware, and potentially in control, of the usage of your money. We shall end the session with some QnAs and open discussions with the audience to bring out complementary, alternative and newer ideas from their experience to help us all leave the room a tad wiser.

This session may NOT be for you if:

• you are looking for an immediate effortless solution. I wish to develop this someday, but the existing solutions are a bit of a chore. However, I have still found the practice to be worth it.
• you are looking for an immediate free and practical solution. There are free applications for the same but their limitations do not make it practical. The paid apps are unfortunately priced for the Western market and hence their costs seem ridiculous, about ₹700 ($8.25) a month for YNAB, for example. Note that I am not promoting or affiliated with any of these products. In fact, I would like to create my own no-frills solution someday which would provide a better experience and be priced for the Indian market.
• you are looking for financial advice. I will not be telling you what you should do with your money; that is for you and your financial advisor to decide. I will be merely showing you a system which could help you do what you want to do with your money.

This session may be for you if:

• you are willing to be proactive about your budget. The key difference between envelope budgeting and expense tracking is that the former is a proactive method which may help you be in control of your money.
• you are willing to do a bit of chore every (other) day. There is plenty of scope for UX improvement in the existing solutions to reduce the required efforts.
• you have the patience and a bit of dedication to try it out for a few weeks (ideally one to two months) to see if the practice is of value to you.
• you are about to start earning (for e.g., final year college students). I started reading about and using this system right with my first salary and hence have always been aware of my money. Also, now I know no other (or better) way so I continue to use the system.
• you have been earning but do not do any sort of budgeting.
• you have been earning but your budgeting systems have failed for you.
• you have been earning and your budgeting system is working for you. You may pick up some newer ideas from the session but more importantly, your input will be extremely valuable for the audience to learn from.

• Type of talk: Deep Dive