Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Is keeping track of your money and having a budget the same thing?
A budget is a plan for spending money in the future. Tracking spending is only looking at what happened in the past.  Many people only track their spending, a proper budget can be key to achieving financial goals. You might earn enough and not spend frivolously enough that you aren't hamstrung by lack of a budget, but if you have specific financial goals, odds are you'll be more successful at achieving them by budgeting rather than only tracking spending.  I'm a fan of zero-sum budgets, where every dollar is allocated to a specific bucket ahead of time. Here's a good write-up on zero-sum budgets: How and Why to Use a Zero-Sum Budget