One thing I am always baffled by is how clueless or bad people are in regards to money.  Even when I was a twelve and first earned money people same age to folks three times my age were simply terrible at budgeting.  Getting older and across different occupations I have seen majority of people simply don't know how to budget despite some being very educated and intelligent. 

I mean basic stuff like going into credit card debt because they drank out too often or wanted a television or just forget to make payments. Not having a clue how much money they even have in their bank account or retirement fund.

I know getting into finances is sensitive so I don't expect anyone to disclose their income, but I do wonder the following.

On a monthly basis do you try to live within your means?

Do you plan financially months, years or decades in advance?

Feel free to add why or why not you manage the way you do. 

I'm okay, I guess. Bills are paid, got a little savings, 401k etc. My problem is that 90% of my friends and family are terrible in this regard and have no problems with begging for my help.

I let people drag me down knowing full well that if something ever happens to me, I can only count on myself.

That is a fair point of differing internal forces versus external ones.

You do see how odd it is when 90% (I believe it too) people you know have this issue. Why is that? Why is it so difficult for majority of people to wrap their heads around concepts such as saving and planning?

I'm decent, though I still don't have a constant income soy budgeting could get better or worse. The best thing I have to my.name about intelligence with money is that I went from having a fake blackberry phone ( $70 ) in 2011, I changed that phone four times since then and now have a quad-core android phone and I only took a hit of maybe $100 to buy them all including the original phone.

I'm pretty good. And I think a big reason for that is the quality of UK banks for service, compared to Canadian/ US banks (I've had first hand experience in all three). In the UK you can send online payments for free and instantly ,as well as setting up direct debits to pay off bills etc. Plus most of the big UK banks have budgeting tools or savings calculators built into their online banking, so it's pretty easy to manage your money.

Alright, but don't have a job or anything like that yet so it's still a bit up in the air.