The one-page money plan: everything you need, nothing you don't

Most money advice fails for one simple reason: it's too complicated to keep up. People start a detailed budget in January, log every coffee for three weeks and give up by February. The fix isn't more discipline. It's a simpler plan.

Here's a money plan that fits on a single page. Write it by hand if you like. Review it once a month.

Box 1: What comes in

Write down your take-home pay each month, after taxes and deductions. If your income varies, use the amount from a lean month, not a good one. Planning on your worst month makes the good months a bonus instead of a crutch.

Box 2: What must go out

List the bills you can't skip: housing, utilities, insurance, transportation, minimum debt payments, groceries and childcare. Add them up. This is your floor, the amount you need just to keep life running.

If your floor takes up more than about two-thirds of your income, that's the most important number on the page. It tells you the pressure isn't coming from coffee. It's coming from the big fixed costs, and that's where any real change will happen.

Box 3: Pay yourself before you spend

Choose an amount to move automatically on payday into savings. Even a small amount counts. The habit matters more than the size at first. Split it between:

1. An emergency fund, until you have at least three months of your floor set aside
2. Long-term savings, such as a retirement account
3. Goals with dates, such as a car, a trip or a home deposit

Box 4: The guilt-free rest

Whatever is left after the floor and the automatic savings is yours to spend, with no tracking and no guilt. This is the part most budgets get wrong. When people know their important bills and savings are already covered, they stop worrying about every small purchase.

Box 5: Debts, in order

List each debt with its balance and interest rate. Keep making the minimum payments on all of them, then put any extra toward one at a time, usually the one with the highest rate. Cross each one off as it goes. Watching the list shrink is surprisingly motivating.

The monthly ten-minute check

Once a month, look at the page and ask three questions. Did the automatic savings happen? Did the floor change? Is one debt smaller than last month? If the answer is yes, you're on track. No app required.