BiggerPockets Money Podcast · Friday, July 10, 2026
Scott Trench and Mindy Jensen discuss a new budgeting tool developed by BiggerPockets Money. The tool uses government spending data, adjusted for geography and household type, to provide a realistic view of expenses rather than aspirational ones.
“Should you spend more because you live in a high cost of living area, or are you just making excuses?”
“Oh boy, we're going to use another BP Money tool. These are all free, of course, you can check them out at biggerpocketsmoney.com/resources.”
“This is a beast of a data set. I think it's a beast of a data set that I've assembled with my AI companion and painstakingly checked, although there's going to be of course deviations, there's a lot of estimates and guesswork in here in the first place.”
“This is not aspirational. I think a lot of fire and financial independence content talks about aspirational, like what spending ought to be in a given situation. This is not trying to do that. This is just to say, and here's what I believe spending actually is per Bureau of Labor Statistics data, per HUD Fair Market rents in a given area, per regional pricing adjustments, right?”