Making Cents: Try the 50/30/20 rule to change the way you budget

US senator Elizabeth Warren is currently in the news as a potential US presidential candidate for the Democratic party. But long before becoming involved in politics, Ms Warren was a Harvard professor and a highly respected expert in law and economics.

In 2005 she wrote a book, with her daughter, which popularised a particular method of budgeting — the 50/30/20 rule. I remembered the rule this week while thinking about ways to take a new approach to one’s own finances.