The hottest Budgeting Substack posts right now

The congressional budget process is complicated but important. It involves planning for the next fiscal year's budget, and the President has to submit a budget to Congress each February.
302(b) allocations divide spending among subcommittees and set limits on how much each can spend. This means subcommittees can't really cut overall spending and instead fight for larger shares of the same budget pie.
Changes in the budget process have shifted responsibility for controlling spending from the Appropriations Committee to the Budget Committee. This has affected how subcommittees operate and strategize for their funding requests.

Being the first to propose an idea helps you influence others. If you share your plan early, people are more likely to agree with you before they even think of alternatives.
Once a group agrees on something, it’s hard for them to change their minds. Even if people might prefer another option, they will often stick with the first idea because it's already been accepted.
People who didn’t propose the idea will focus on making small changes instead of suggesting a new plan. This means that the original proposer still holds significant control over the main idea.

The Joint Super Committee (JSC) has the potential for big changes, even if it seems unlikely to achieve much right now. Sometimes, it’s worth paying attention to small chances because the outcomes can be significant.
How the JSC process fails could impact politics greatly, regardless of whether it achieves any policy changes. Politicians will try to manage that failure to turn it into a win for themselves.
Media tends to focus on the JSC because it's seen as new and exciting, while the appropriations process is more complicated and less glamorous, even though it might have more immediate consequences.

The current budgeting issues in Congress are more about politics than the process itself. Changing the timeline may not solve the underlying disagreements about money and priorities.
Switching to a two-year budgeting system could lead to more intense political battles. The pressure might shift from an annual basis to a crisis point every two years.
Moving to biennial budgeting might create complications, like more supplemental funding needs. It could end up being less efficient rather than streamlining the process.

Avoid taking loans when buying a car. It's better to buy what you can afford outright instead of paying more with interest over time.
Always get third-party insurance for your car. It's legally required and usually costs less, while still offering protection without wasting money on unnecessary upgrades.
Buying a used car can save you a lot of money since they depreciate quickly. You'll get more value for your budget without locking away too much money.

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Combine Run vs Change with AI vs Non-AI when allocating budget so AI isn’t siloed; set portfolio ranges and rebalance regularly.
Treat much cloud OpEx as effectively committed spend and actively manage committed vs variable budget. Keep enough variable budget to absorb shocks and make FinOps and governance real before the CFO enforces them.
Use guardrails: keep most work incremental and reserve step-change bets for Change+AI, treating Run as efficiency and Change as growth. Require controls, fallbacks and audit trails for customer-facing AI, and advance autonomy gradually from recommend to assist to execute.

Treat in-person events like big investments and use a quiz-style planning rubric (available as a doc and interactive app) to decide if an event is worth doing.
There’s a community-sourced map of 40+ hand-picked dinner venues for company-hosted events in San Francisco and New York City, with more cities to be added over time.
A set of templates and guides (event strategy, hosting dinners, and a template library) is available to help you plan and run successful IRL events.