Mr. Money's Helpful Hints

Missing / Other Pages
Here, we've added a few pages to our book for areas of "special spending." To open this expense category, you might say something like, "As you can see, we've done pretty well so far. In fact, at this point, we're almost done and have most of your missing numbers. Before we go one though, can you think of anything else you spend money on, anything we haven't talked about so far?"

Then I'll generally wait a few moments to see what they say.

If they say nothing, I'll say something like, "You might have noticed we haven't talked about clothing yet. Why? Because clothing can be a tough one to figure out. Let's try anyway. Think about how, when the seasons change, people change their wardrobes. Do you recall the last time you did some clothes shopping?

Another area that we haven't mentioned yet is "pets." I've found pets can be pretty expensive, especially when those vet bills come. Do you have any pets and if so, how much do you spend on things like veterinarian bills, pet foods, and so on?

Finally I ask, "Does anything else come to mind that we haven't talked about yet?"