My sister and her husband are self-employed.When they first started out they never thought of the time when money was not going to come in. So they had to find out the hard way. It was ruogh for them, but they stuck it out. Now they are busy and the money is comming in they aolways but some aside for when things are slow. And they are doing great.

That's a very informative article. I've learned how to budget my money since I was in grade school. My mom used to give me a whole week's allowance and I should budget it carefully, not to overspend on some days, so I will have enough until friday. That helped me a lot now that I have a family of my own.

There's also a nice list of free budgeting software here.

Good article.

I work with a lot of self-employed (my practice is built around small and medium sized business owners) and this is a major issue for all of them. Not to mention having to go through this myself when I first opened my practice.

Budgeting, if made simple, is very effective. Like another poster mentioned, however, you have to build in rewards for yourself. Don't use annual numbers, but use the highest monthly value of any expense. Make sure things like car insurance that are paid quarterly or less frequently that you are disciplined to save ahead.

I liked the article overall.

Chris