BOOK OF THE WEEK: THE POUCHPLAN BUDGET BY MITCHELL WALKER

Hello people.

The Pouchplan is a budgeting tool created by Mitchell Walker to help individuals take control of their finances. In the introductory chapter of the book, The Pouchplan Budget, Mitchell seeks to establish credibility by explaining that he worked for fifteen years as the vice president of finance for a Berkshire Hathaway company and thus has experience analysing and reviewing thousands of budgets. 

He then describes how he was broke and in debt in the late 1980s, to the extent of looking for change under the couch cushions in his home just to get gas money for his car. The Pouchplan, he claims, was the shovel he used to dig his family out of financial distress and into financial security.

The author in chapter one explains how the Pouchplan works. All that is needed is for users of the plan to write down their regular income, their fixed expenses and finally their variable expenses, and then the Pouchplan budget system will provide specific instructions for users to follow when payday arrives. Someone is probably thinking now; “This is just too good to be true.” 

I must confess that I had mixed feelings after reading the book. First, I think I sort of expected more; perhaps the dos and don’ts of budgeting or that sort of thing. The book, however, is based entirely on the Pouchplan tool. I also wondered as to the seeming simplicity of the tool; bearing in mind the fact that a lot of budgeting tools are rather complex and complicated, to say the least.

Fortunately for doubting Thomases, the Pouchplan can be downloaded for free via the website, www.pouchplan.com. It’s a plus on the part of the author that he is interested in receiving feedback from users, whether positive or negative, and he even mentions the possibility of tailoring the Pouchplan to suit the individual’s needs where possible. Readers interested in a budgeting tool will find this book quite useful.