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To people who don’t actively budget, budgeting can seem like a complicated mess involving spreadsheet programs, notebooks, and other materials. To others, it can seem like a restrictive nightmare, keeping your different types of spending in a tight box and holding back your freedom of choice to an unpleasant degree.

(I actually don’t find either to be true, but I’ve certainly heard the complaints.)

One solution to both of these problems is to move to a simpler budgeting system, one that offers only the most basic of spending guidelines and gives you a lot of flexibility within those guidelines. It’s a great solution for people who want to improve their financial situation but don’t like to have each category of their financial life in a tight box.

That’s where proportional budgeting comes in.

Like almost everyone in America, I fill my spare time with a number of projects and a handful of hobbies. I have a number of things I’ve consistently enjoyed over the years – reading books comes to mind, as does computer programming – as well as hobbies that I’ve jumped into passionately for a while and then burnt out on – golf comes to mind, as does geocaching.

Income-Positive Versus Income-Negative

The problem is that the vast majority of hobbies and projects out there are “income-negative.” In other words, those hobbies consume money instead of creating it.

Many of my hobbies certainly fall into this category. While I do strive to keep the financial implications low – I try to spend roughly $1 per hour of hobby enjoyment – most of my hobbies are still income-negative.

Right now, there are a ton of legal ways to listen to music online for free. Sure, you can buy mp3s so that you have complete freedom in terms of when and where you want to listen, but if you just want a radio-like service with a bit of control, there are many free options online for listening.

Which one is best, though? It really depends on what you’re looking for. Over the past few months, I’ve tried out several services, each with a unique mix of pros and cons. I found all of the services here to have some unique merit, but each person will find one that clicks with them.

Note that the pros and cons of each service are current as of right now. The online music market changes pretty regularly, so these recommendations might not be precisely accurate a year down the road. However, if you’re listening for free, it’s pretty easy to switch services.

Over the course of my career, my single biggest fear – and obstacle – has been “lock in.”

What’s “lock in”? It’s probably easiest to explain it with a story.

Early on in my career, I found myself working at a pretty nice job. I enjoyed the work and enjoyed going into the office almost every day. I was freshly out of college and facing down a pile of student loans, but I didn’t feel overwhelmed.

Roll forward a few years. I transitioned this first job into a second job, one that paid a little more and offered more long-term security but that I didn’t enjoy nearly as much. At the same time, I found myself enjoying the large income quite a bit more. I went out on the town a lot, bought a lot of expensive things, and made very little progress on my student loans – in fact, I actually built up a bit of credit card debt. I was also facing a car loan, as was Sarah.