Budgeting

The kitchen is the most expensive room in most renovations and the one with the widest possible price range. Ask what a kitchen remodel costs and the honest answer is "somewhere between $10,000 and …

Continue Reading about Kitchen Remodel Costs: The Three Tiers, and Which One You Actually Want →

Apartment hunting is conducted in rent. Apartment living is conducted in the total, and the two differ by about a quarter. The real monthly number A $1,400 apartment, fully …

Continue Reading about Your Apartment Costs 24% More Than the Rent →

Most people budget a trip by pricing the flights, because flights are the part with an obvious number attached. Flights are usually under a quarter of the real cost. Here is the whole formula. The six …

Continue Reading about The Trip-Cost Formula: What a Week Away Actually Costs →

Ask what a move costs and most people quote the truck rental. The truck is usually the smallest line on the bill. Moving is a classic sinking-fund expense: predictable, lumpy, and consistently …

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Everyone budgets for the price of the house. Almost nobody budgets for the other four categories, which is why "we can afford the mortgage" and "we can afford the house" turn out to be different …

Continue Reading about Budgeting to Buy a House: Every Cost Except the Price →

Renovation budgets do not blow up because homeowners are careless. They blow up because of a structural feature of the work: you cannot see inside the walls until you open them. Everything else …

Continue Reading about Why Renovation Budgets Always Blow Up (And the One Line That Fixes It) →