At some point in the year it’s budget time. Maybe that time is now. The game is to work out what, with a following wind, will happen, and what you’ll have to do to make it so.

The budget game is about playing, not gaming.

Not, them saying big and you saying small. Not, picking two extremes and kinda-sorta settling in the middle. Not, phoney smiles with everyone agreeing about things they all know to be false. Not, last year plus some percent.

It is about playing scenarios and best guesses. About playing if this and this and this then that and that and that. About playing with ambition and reality, money and timelines, hope and desire. And that’s all before a number is entered in a spreadsheet.

Budgeting, like all games, is best played with pluck and honest reflection.

Skippy strategy: Play at budget time, just not games.