How to Manage Your Money Like a Pro with Automation

Have you heard of decision fatigue? The idea is pretty simple. According to this article from the AMA, decision fatigue refers to “the idea that after making many decisions, your ability to make more and more decisions over the course of a day becomes worse.” Thanks to this phenomenon, it pays to reduce the number of decisions you need to make in a day. That’s where automation comes in.

Automation = Better Financial Habits

Automation is your money’s best friend. By automating your finances, you reduce your opportunities for decision making and decision fatigue, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind about saving money or paying a bill in full. By reducing your decisions you set yourself up for success! Automation can build up your savings and pay off your bills, without any extra effort on your part. So, how can you use automation as a financial tool?

Automate Your Bill Payments

There are many different facets of your finances which can benefit from automation. Automating your bills is a good place to start. Many banks have online bill pay options available that help you pay your regular monthly bills on time. In particular, automation is a good way to ensure you always pay your credit card balance in full, so that you don’t accrue any interest fees. However, one important thing to be aware of when automating your bills is that you will need to stay aware of your bank balance, to avoid over-drafting your account. As long as you keep an eye on your balance, automating your bills is a good way to avoid late fees, build good credit, and stay on top of your finances.

Automate Your Savings

The other major arena of your finances that definitely deserves some automation-attention is your savings. I touched briefly on automating your savings in an earlier article, which you can read here. The most important thing about automating your savings is that if money automatically gets moved out of your spending account, you have no chance to spend it. That makes saving that much easier! We do this with our retirement savings, and it really helps us keep it up. A great resource for further information about automating your savings is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.

If you liked this article and want more tips on financial organization that will make your life a LOT easier, you’ll probably enjoy a free copy of my eBook, 9 Secrets of Financial Self Care. Click here or below to download it!

How to Create a Spending and Income Plan, Part One

Planning ahead with your money is absolutely essential to leading a successful and stress-free life. Creating a spending and income plan for the month ahead can help you achieve your vision of financial freedom. Today, let’s get into the nitty gritty details of how to create a plan that will move you towards your financial goals. 

The ideas I’m going to share here are not new ones, but they are time-tested and solid. Many of my clients have worked with these processes, and I also take inspiration from my mentor Karen McCall, founder of MoneyGrit.(R). This article is part one of two, and these are the first two steps in the 5-step process. Let’s jump right in: 

Clarifying Your Spending

There are a couple ways to do this. I often recommend that my clients sit down with the past three months of their bank and/or credit card statements. (For most of us, these should be available online). Then, I ask them to go through line by line to see where money is really going. 

Karen McCall is a proponent of having people closely track their finances. She reports that the act of tracking every dollar is enough to bring a new level of mindfulness and intentionality into our spending. In her book Financial Recovery, she writes: 

“While people are hesitant to track because of what they fear they’ll have to give up, it is far more often the case that they get more of what they need and want by eliminating unconscious spending.” 

Tracking can be a longer process than simply reviewing your financial records retrospectively, but both bring great insight into where your money is going. Try both and see which works best for you! 

Clarify Your Income

Often when I say this, people immediately think specifically about the money they earn from their job. While this is definitely in the category of “income”, it’s likely not the only thing. Total up all your estimated income from various sources, like selling used items or rental property income. If you need to, you can go back and review all your income information that your bank statements provided you and use that to make an educated guess. 

If you are self-employed or in another situation where your income varies month-to-month, it’s still very important to complete this step. Make a conservative estimate of your income to avoid coming up short, or go through the process of setting up a money system and a solopreneur paycheck for yourself! See my article “How to Create Your Own Paycheck Using a Money System.”

Stay tuned for Part II – and make sure you take breaks and pace yourself through this process.

If you liked this article, you’ll probably love my e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. Get your free copy here!

Want to Enjoy Your Life? Fund It.

The irony of financial goal setting is that we can get so wrapped up in our big-picture idea of financial success, that we forget to lean into enjoying our lives too. This is a snag that I see many people get stuck on. We focus on purchasing a home or funding our retirement. These financial priorities are great, but they sometimes overshadow something that also takes a bit of cash – having fun!

The Importance of Fun

It seems a bit silly to make a serious case for the importance of enjoying your life, but a lot of us (including me) need that reminder! Right now I’m reading The Power of Fun: How to Feel Alive Again by Catherine Price. One of my favorite concepts from this book so far has been Price’s conviction that the moments we are having true fun are the moments we feel most alive.

When it really comes down to it, isn’t that what most of us want anyway? To feel alive in a positive, joyful way? Yes, there’s certainly a lot to be said for achieving goals and getting things done. And, I believe that oftentimes we want to do those things in service to our pursuit of aliveness.

When Fun Costs Money

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might be surprised to see me recommending that you spend money on “fun.” That might even seem contradictory to another concept I like to write about, teasing out your wants from your needs. I particularly like to emphasize the point of finding your “enough,” and of meeting your needs and wants creatively and inexpensively.

Actually, that does apply here. The thing is, being on top of your finances is not about being so frugal that you don’t have any enjoyment in your life. There may be a point where you realize that you truly want something that you know will bring a lot of joy, but also cost money. When you’re setting your financial goals, you can prepare for this and take it into account!

This might be a longterm savings goal, like a trip overseas, or it might be a purchase, like a musical instrument. These things do cost money, but they’re worth it. Including them in your financial planning is an important of remembering to enjoy your life!

Fun Up Your Finances

So, how do we integrate fun into our finances, exactly? My suggestion would be to keep fun in the front of your mind whenever you’re setting new financial goals for yourself. Here are a couple articles of mine on the subject that you might enjoy:

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Stop Expecting “Business As Usual”

So far, 2020 has been a challenge for many business owners. The COVID-19 pandemic and its economic fallout and the protests that have broken out around the country have both rocked the business landscape. Many solopreneurs and business owners have had to completely reshape their offerings and financial strategies. Perhaps this includes you!

This time last year, I shared my thoughts on how to do a mid-year review. This time around, I’m thinking about how rather than reflecting on the year so far, it’s time to adapt to a new and different future. I had prepared a blog post about how my income expectations faltered as the pandemic set in. However, because so many people ended up needing help straightening out their books, I blew my original income goal out of the water! My point with this post was going to be how important it is to not let a dismal situation limit your expectations for your business. But, at this moment, I think there’s something deeper to learn. In these rapidly-changing times, it’s important for us to adapt and be gentle with ourselves.

No More “Business As Usual”

Despite the many plans for re-opening the U.S., for many of us, things are not going back to normal. Perhaps you already know this from looking at your bottom line. Or maybe you’ve seen reports about how small businesses have been affected at large. The economic effects and social effects of recent times have created a lasting change in the small business landscape. It’s important for us as business owners to prepare for things to continue to change. This can look a myriad of ways. Creating a money system and putting together a savings cushion are two great strategies for establishing financial resiliency if you want extra ideas.

Just because things aren’t going back to normal doesn’t mean it’s all doom and gloom, though. Aside from the economic effects, both the pandemic and the recent Black Lives Matter protests have also enriched the business landscape from a social perspective. There are so many opportunities for collaboration! Now more than ever, we have an opportunity to lift each other up. If you want more ideas for collaboration, check out my article on 7 Tips for Business Owners During COVID-19 and my Cash Flow Reboot Guide.

Be Gentle

Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t meet your income goals or if your business is struggling. Conversely, if you find yourself getting a ton of business as a result of the pandemic, don’t work yourself too hard, either! Coping with changes in your business can be challenging. Giving yourself the space to be present with feelings that come up and get enough rest are of paramount importance. The reality is that, no matter how hard you grind right now, in many cases things are still going to be challenging. This is a hard time in the world for most people, solopreneur or not! Be gentle in your expectations of yourself as best you can.

Be Present

In addition to stepping up to give your emotions some space, this is also a time step up for your community as a business owner. The current moment we are in is showing us many ways to do this. Whether we choose to uplift Black colleagues, create fundraising projects, or present some offerings for free, we’ve got options in how to contribute. I think that, if we want to, we can use this moment to permanently change how we do business. I love the way that Proposals for the Feminine Economy frames businesses – as “needs-fulfillment machine[s].” How can we find ways to do business that meet, not only our own needs, but the needs of those around us? Both COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter protests have shown us how connected we all really are – socially and economically. This is a question we can sit with right now.

What are your thoughts about business as usual? Has your business experienced any bumps in the road? Please sound off in the comments below. If you’re feeling in need of more guidance on how to navigate this time, don’t hesitate to check out my services and schedule a call.

☮

Angela

Image by Christin Hume

Money and Marriage

Money and Marriage: At Peace With Money

Ah February, the month of love. What better time to dig into your finances with your partner, right? Marriage and money can be a complex subject. I’ve written a little bit about the money moves my husband and I have made over the years to stay on top of our money game. But my best suggestion? Make time to go over your finances together.

The Impact of Regular “Money Time”

Regularly coming together to look at your finances is extremely important in marriage! Why? Because your futures are intertwined, and finances are a major factor in any potential future you share. If you’re not both on the same page about where your money is going and how close you are to reaching any goals, planning other parts of your future plans will be difficult.

Having regular “money dates” can make space for the time you need to get on the same financial page. Together, you can check in on accounts and investments, review your personal incomes, and set and monitor financial goals. Doing this regularly can build your motivation and help you stay on top of financial projects, like paying off debt or building an emergency fund.

Make It Fun

Money and Marriage: At Peace With MoneyIn my last post, I put up a book review of Bari Tessler’s The Art of Money.  Check it out if you haven’t already! One of my favorite pieces of wisdom from her is that it’s important to try to make looking at your finances more pleasant for you! If it feels difficult to look at your accounts and really be honest with yourself, think about what you can do to make it more fun. This could be relaxing music, lighting some candles, a warm fire – anything to make the task feel more comfortable. This same advice holds for money dates with your partner. If it’s hard for the two of you to sit down and talk about money, brainstorm together about how you can make it more fun and bearable!

I hope this info has inspired you to check in with your life partner and gauge the path of your financial futures! I wish you smooth sailing. Check out my article on money buddies for more ideas!

Angela

Book Review: The One Thing

At Peace With Money: Book Review: The-One-ThingThis summer, I read The One Thing by Gary Keller (no relation), and my initial reaction was irritation. Essentially, the book advises us to focus on one big goal that you want to accomplish and then break that goal down into smaller time chunks.The goal is to do something small to work toward that goal every day. The key is focusing. That’s probably why it irritated me.

Staying focused is definitely something that I struggle with. As a business owner, as a wife and mother, as a person in today’s world of distracting gadgets – focusing is difficult!  It seems there is always a fire to put out, a need to be met. Always there is an idea that is nibbling your brain, or a rabbit hole to dive into and lose 45 minutes of your life. My reaction was about something I need to work on in myself rather than the idea the author presents.  

He also suggests scheduling that focused time into your calendar and protecting it – another challenge for me. On top of that, he debunks the idea of multi-tasking. This felt blasphemous to me at first. What mother do you know who does not pride herself on juggling multiple balls in the air on a daily basis!?! It seemed to me that Gary Keller was basically trying topull the rug out from under my life! This book made me so angry that I had to take a few months to calm down enough to even write this review.

Practical Applications

But somehow, this morning I woke up thinking about this book again. A practical example to apply his basic techniques popped into my mind. Let’s say you want to save $30,000 to buy a house over the next 5 years. That sounds like a lot of money to save and a crazy goal! But if we break it down to saving $6,000 this year and saving $500 each month which means saving about $17 each day, it becomes manageable. To reach this goal, we ask, what’s the one thing we can do today to get that started? Perhaps you open the savings account. Maybe you start a side hustle and allocate all the income to that goal. You might start saving your cash in a money jar to deposit at month end. Maybe you resolve to pack your lunch.

The One Thing Book Review: At Peace With MoneyWhat’s important is getting started by taking some action today to make the goals you have for your future turn into a reality.  That is a lesson I can take from this book.

I might have to work on my focus, and reexamine my views on multitasking. However, I do feel I stand behind the ultimate message of this book: get clear on your goal, focus on it, and work towards it every day. If you do that, you will achieve what you’re after. Whether that’s saving for a house or starting a business, this is an important reminder in how we approach our financial goals. If you need an accountability partner to help you get started, please feel free to reach out.  I would love to help you reach your goals (and I promise not to forbid you from multitasking!)

 

Angela

Image Sources: Squidhub, Bonehead Business

What’s Your Money Why?

Your money “why” is like your business’s compass, because it’s hard to get where you’re going if you don’t know exactly where you’re going or why you’re going there! Everyone talks about finding your “why” – your motivation or purpose – in business. Doing so is absolutely important, but today I want to talk about your money “why” because I think that is equally important to the direction of your business. Knowing exactly what your goals are for the money your business generates will  guide you in your financial decision making process and ultimately to the realization of said goals.  

My Money Why

When I started my first business, I wanted to make some “extra money.” The problem was, I really wasn’t clear on what that money was for. Without direction that extra money seemed to  simply come and go.  When I started my bookkeeping business, I had a specific goal for the money I was making: I was paying college tuition for our oldest daughter. She has since graduated and I am now in the process of putting our second daughter through college (three years to go!). After my goal for my money is to supplement our retirement, so that my husband can leave his demanding career. Because I know specifically what these things cost, I have an exact number to set as my revenue goal.

Know Your Money Why: At Peace With Money

Whether you have started your business to fully support yourself or your household, or you’re doing a side hustle to pay for “extras,” if you know your money goals and can get some exact numbers you need to meet in order to reach these goals, you will be so much more clear on how to get there. This added clarity will simplify your decisions, and make your objective more clear. You will also be more likely to make better decisions to maintain your business’s profitability. They always say, “keep your eye on the prize.” Doing so is a lot easier when you know what the prize is!

So, ask yourself a few questions: Why did you go into business? What are some life goals you have that cost money? What are some specific financial goals you need or want to meet with your income? Come up with specific numbers and stay focused on those – now you know your money why! If you need some assistance getting to the bottom of your money why, perhaps you’d like to check out my Business Beginnings or Turning Points packages. 

Angela

Image Sources: James ChouCasey Horner

How To Pay Yourself First

How To Pay Yourself First: At Peace With MoneyI use the hashtag #PayYourselfFirst all the time, but what does it really mean to pay yourself first? It’s a core aspect of Profit First philosophy. It’s also an important part of how I organize my own personal finances. I want to make sure all my readers know how to pay themselves first, in their business and personal finances, so let’s dive in.

Keep What You Earn

“Paying yourself first” is about having a system in place to make sure that you get to keep a portion of your earnings. In my last post on automation, I talked about David Bach’s book, The Automatic Millionaire. Bach includes the concept of paying yourself first in this book and applies it to personal finances. He suggests setting aside savings right off the top of every paycheck, even before breaking it down for living expenses. Users of this system do quite literally pay themselves first! In his system, the money goes to retirement savings accounts, but the system can be adjusted in both business and personal finances to fit your own needs.  Taking a cut for yourself from each paycheck is and important but easily forgotten practice.

Beyond Corporate

So, how does this apply to solopreneurs? If you’re working outside the corporate world, you’re probably working without health and retirement benefits. This is all the more reason to set up a system to take care of these needs. Setting aside money to address health and retirement costs is important for many people, but especially so if your main source of funding for both is your own business. 

How to Pay Yourself First: At Peace With Money

I always say I want to help my clients work with the Profit First system to align their business profits with their life goals, and I assume one of those goals is to support yourself in your health and retirement! Every financial aspect of your business can be set up with this in mind. Your products should be priced appropriately so that you earn something for yourself, rather than just simply covering costs. A part of that money should be invested into your future and your healthcare fund. This is the Profit First system at its core. This is what I want to help solopreneurs work towards with their businesses.

Take a look at your personal and business money systems and ask yourself, do you pay yourself first? Are you setting aside money to support and reward yourself? If you’re interested in more on this topic, I highly suggest downloading the first 5 chapters of the Profit First book through my website.

 

Angela

Image Sources:  Alisa Anton, zixuan Fu

Why Automation Is Your Money’s BFF

Why Automation is Your Money's BFF: At Peace With MoneyAutomation is your money’s best friend. By automating your finances, you reduce your opportunities for decision making, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind about saving money or paying a bill in full. By reducing your decisions you set yourself up for success! Automation can build up your savings and pay off your bills, without any extra effort on your part. So, how can you use automation as a financial tool?

Automate Everything!

There are many different facets of your finances which can benefit from automation. Automating your bills is a good place to start. Many banks have online bill pay options available that help you pay your regular monthly bills on time. In particular, automation is a good way to ensure you always pay your credit card balance in full, so that you don’t accrue any interest fees. However, one important thing to be aware of when automating your bills is that you will need to stay aware of your bank balance, to avoid over-drafting your account. As long as you keep an eye on your balance, automating your bills is a good way to avoid late fees, build good credit, and stay on top of your finances.

The other major arena of your finances that definitely deserves some automation-attention is your savings. I touched briefly on automating your savings in an earlier article, which you can read here. The most important thing about automating your savings is that if money automatically gets moved out of your spending account, you have no chance to spend it. That makes saving that much easier! We do this with our retirement savings, and it really helps us keep it up. A great resource for further information about automating your savings is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.

I hope this motivates you to try out automation with your finances!

Angela

Image Sources: Mitch Lensink, Lucas Silva Pinheiro Santos

Young and Thrifty: Creating a Spending Plan

How to Create a Spending Plan: At Peace With Money

Creating a spending plan, also sometimes known as a budget, can be a very important tool for getting a handle on your finances no matter where you are in life. In my last Young and Thrifty post, we briefly touched on budgeting as a way to encourage saving habits. Today, I want to look more closely at 3 different types of spending plans. Maybe you’ll find one that works for you! But first, the budgeting basics:

Analyze Your Expenses

The first step to creating almost any spending plan is to analyze your expenses. Figure out what your fixed expenses are, like rent or mortgage payments, transportation costs, food, etc. These types of expenses are things you really need that tend to cost the same amount every month. After you’ve confirmed what your fixed expenses are, you can analyze the rest of your spending habits and determine which of your expenses are flexible, and not as necessary as your fixed necessities.

Once you’ve evaluated your finances in this way, you can start to take charge of your spending using various strategies.

Categories

The most common budgeting strategy is to divide your expenses into specific categories and assigning designated not to exceed amounts for each category. For example: “Food, $200/month, gas, $150/month, etc.” Doing this can help you establish your monthly living expenses and also help you understand how much you spend on each category. If you wish to cut down on your spending in a particular area, this may be a useful strategy for you.

Set Amount for Flexible Expenses

Another strategy that is helpful when you’re really focused on saving is setting aside a set amount of money for all expenses that lie outside of your fixed necessities. When my oldest daughter was setting a budget while saving for her road trip, she set aside $100 a month for all expenses that weren’t fixed necessities. This might be tight for some, but setting an amount in this way is a very simple budgeting tactic that can encourage you to make your spending more intentional.

Rewards

A third tactic that can help you create a spending plan you’ll stick to is to set aside rewards for yourself. For example, if you have $500 to spend on a certain monthly expense, and you manage to only use $480, you can use that extra $20 to reward yourself. This can be applied to your overall monthly expenses or within certain categories. One of my daughters has found this strategy very motivating and usually ends up using her reward money on ice cream.

Resources

There are two digital resources I can recommend for anyone looking to create a spending plan. Mint and You Need A Budget are both digital budgeting software systems that will help you set up and track your monthly budget. From my personal experience, I enjoy Mint, and my family uses their free version. Amber Dugger really appreciates YNAB and uses it with her clients.Creating a Spending Plan: At Peace With Money

Though this article mentions only a few strategies, budgeting and spending plans can be as simple or complex as you need them to be. I encourage you to do more research if you’re interested. I recommend this article from Practical Money Skills and this podcast from Jen Hemphill as two helpful resources. In a later post, I will be putting together a list of some of my favorite resources for financial self-education.

I hope you find these spending strategies useful. Stay thrifty!

Angela

Images:Camille Orgel, Unknown

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