It’s no secret that I have a fairly significant project in the works in the installing of some radio equipment into my Blazer. Well, I was going to make a post focusing on the financial planning aspect of any project but have decided to make it about time, money, and materials instead.

First, in regards to overestimating the cost. This is always a good idea, because even though you have most of the cost estimated fairly precisely (especially the major components) and have taken some account for the other aspects of the project, there will almost always be things you didn’t think about before that you need. Another aspect of this is that some of these minor items may cost more than you had originally thought they would.

In regards to the time, to complete a project and to do it right will likely take longer than you thought it would. Also, it is very unlikely that everything is going to go as smoothly and perfectly as you had hoped and planned for. Be sure to take this in to account to avoid having to rush through the last portion or settle for something less than you had planned.

Finally, the materials needed should also be a bit overestimated. The reason for this is that estimations are just that: estimations. When estimating how much of something you will need for a given purpose, it is always better to have a bit more than you need than not enough. Also, overestimating can be useful because it will often leave you with leftover material that can be used for something else in the future or an aspect of the project you hadn’t thought of before.

There you have it, three things you should always overestimate when planning a project. In a future post, I will show how these things all came in to play regarding my radio install.