The vocabulary section of my son’s third-grade social studies book laid out one of life’s basics that I sometimes miss as an aircraft owner — ‘Budget — a plan for managing money.’ It goes on to tell the story of a teenager with a summer job who has to budget for three areas: his needs (bus fare and lunch money); his wants (some new CDs and a birthday gift for his dad — gotta love that example); and savings (college fund). Our hero sets down his numbers in columns, adds up his three areas of expenses and compares them against his expected income.
Sometimes I wonder if the average aircraft owner (yours truly included) is at all smarter than a third grader.
