When it comes to finances, I’m starting to realize it isn’t as hard as people make it seem.The best way to keep your finances in order is to keep it simple. Yes there are many apps, there are many budget trackers, and there are TONS of advice from people all over the internet telling you what to do. And the truth is, it all works…..for them.
I always liked to think of myself as a finance or numbers kind of person. I liked updating my spreadsheets every week, tracking the stock markets for individual trades, jumping between credit card apps to see which card will get me the most points for my purchase, etc. I literally did a lot of all that before because I actually enjoyed doing it.
Now just because I liked doing it does not necessarily mean it worked. Imagine what I just said. I checked and updated my spreadsheet daily, picked stocks I thought would outperform the market, and logged onto each credit card app to see which card will give me the most bang for my buck. If you think of that, that’s a lot of time committed for something that can be so simple. And because it isn’t simple or takes up much of time, wouldn’t you think you’d just stress over this anyways in the long run?
I have. Like I said, I actually did enjoy doing all of those things because I wanted to squeeze every cent out of all I did, but now I realized it isn’t worth the effort anymore. My finances didn’t seem like they’re getting any better or worse so it made me feel like everything I did was just for fun. I don’t think it was a waste, but more of something that was for fun, which essentially takes up my leisure time.
When I think of the risk and reward of the effort I can’t quantify to think that it’s worth it anymore. To be on top of your finances I think there’s only a few things you need to keep track of, money in and money out. The small nitty gritty like interest charges, fees, credit card points are all important, but I do think simplifying and not thinking about every little aspect of finances are important.
Avoid the stress. Simplify and automate your finances so there isn’t much human intervention into it.
Here are five things that I have done and it’s helped me tremendously and saved me time and money:
- Use ONE budget tracker like personal finance to see ALL your accounts in one spot. The less apps you use the better. Don’t log into spreadsheets or anything like that anymore when there are purpose built apps already. Simplify and just use one thing to see your financial picture.
- Set all credit cards/accounts on auto pay, paid in full preferable. If you can’t do the full amount budget FIXED numbers, don’t just aim for the minimum. For example your minimum is $43.97. I would set my auto pay on $50 or even $100. As long as it’s fixed it’s easier for me to track whatever (Round up to what you can afford).
- Separate credit cards per use case. I have one card specifically for food, one for business expenses, leisure, and travel. I find the card that gets the most value in their respective categories and set them aside just for those reasons. Even if it’s a revolving cashback bonus, I do not chase anymore because 1% to 5% isn’t much of a big deal when you spend $100-300. If you’re a frequent spender then yes it might matter, but for most people it simply doesn’t. Just find a card that will get the most cash back in one category and set it aside for that kind of spend only.
- Investments on auto deposit. I now put $5/day into the stock market to grow an investment account. Might not seem like a lot but it’s something I don’t think about anymore. The cost of $5 isn’t really noticeable for me because it comes out to $100/month I sacrifice to invest. I dont track the news, I don’t watch the stock market, I don’t have FOMO. It just pulls from my bank account and does its thing. A simple ETF that tracks the S&P 500 or a stock you believe in. I’m not over-performing the stock market but I’m certainly not losing as much money as before when I was picking individual stocks waiting for it to shoot to the moon.
- Make an “Fu*k you” fund…..or a rewards fund. This is a fund where you can splurge or buy whatever you want just because. There’s always something big that we want to purchase or something that we want to save towards. Creating a savings account(high yield preferred) for this specific purchase makes saving a lot easier and a lot less likely to spend since it’s in its own account. It might be purely psychological but seeing that it is in a different account from one where you draw cash from makes it easier to actually save and not touch the money at all. Of course all set an automated amount to go into the account. The more automation the better.
In summary, simplify your finances as much as possible. It just makes things stress free and easier. It might actually make it fun because of how stupidly simple things are. We do not need to over complicate our finances because the more technical it gets, the more you’ll eventually stray away from it and stress out over it. Simplify and automate. But also know this, do what works for you. Some people genuinely love spreadsheets, some people can do their numbers on a paper napkin. How simple things get comes down to you. This is just my take, hope it helps 🙂