The key to getting ahead financially is to spend less than you earn. There is literally no other way to achieve financial freedom. This applies to billionaires and regular old working people.
But it’s not easy. We hear about the athletes and actors who are in debt because of overspending despite making millions of dollars over their careers. If you make $10 million but spend $11 million, you are not in good shape.
However, this is a problem for people of all income levels. Things like credit cards, mortgages and other personal loans have made it super easy to spend more than you earn. Easy access to credit makes people more greedy for things like fancy cars and big houses which can create more debt.
A big reason why Americans find it difficult to save our hard earned, and highly taxed (federal tax, state tax AND sales tax!) money is that very little planning is done when receiving that bi-weekly paycheck. Everyone looks forward to Friday payday but for most people the money hits their checking account with no thought to where it’s going next.
And this is where the trouble begins. Most of the time that money just gets spent on various bills. And nothing is left over for savings. Rinse lather and repeat every 2 weeks.
Now it’s easy to see why lack of planning is a big reason people have a hard time saving. So what’s the solution?
Checking is the Central Hub
I like to think of my checking account as the control center of my finances. Money goes in and is then distributed to where it needs to go. It’s not a place where I like to park money since I like to have my money either invested or paying off debt.
This requires a mindset shift since most people, including my past self, just park their money in checking and paid bills as they came in and tried to save if possible. Not a real financial strategy since most of the time you’re just trying to keep your head above water.
I consider this a very REACTIVE way to handle your paycheck. You just kind of pay bills as they show up and have no real savings strategy. Worse, any extra money that happens to be sitting in checking usually just gets spent.
A more PROACTIVE way to handle your paycheck is to have multiple destinations set up before the money arrives. That way you can be sure money gets where it needs to be according to your financial goals.
Pay Yourself First Every time
Most people have heard the financial cliche “pay yourself first”. It’s another core financial concept just like “spend less than you earn”. While both of these sayings sound fun and useful, they can be difficult to implement. While most people WANT to save, it just doesn’t end up happening (evidenced by the fact that the average American saves less than 5% of their income).
So if you can’t will your way to save, the next best thing is to get out of your own way and let robots do the work. This is done through automatic saving and investment plans which are very easy to set up.
Want to save $500 a month in your emergency savings plan? Set up an automatic monthly deposit. Finally want to max out your Roth IRA? Just start a monthly transfer from your brokers website for a $458.33 monthly transfer from your checking account (That’s the $5,500 IRA max divided by 12 months).
You can also set up automatic payments for your credit cards. This way you’ll never have a late payment and you can use the full grace period the card issuer gives.
It might take a few months to get all of your major goals and bills set up but once you do, money will be moving in and out like clockwork. You’ll be able to meet your financial goals with a minimal amount of maintenance needed.
And that’s the best way to pay yourself first. Set up automatic transfers into all of the different accounts you want to save into. Those transactions should shape how much you spend. Unfortunately, most people just save whatever they can AFTER they have spent to their heart’s content.
There’s usually not much left for savings after that.
Conclusion
“Spend less than you earn” and “pay yourself first” are two common personal finance phrases that are difficult to put into action. But these are the two things you have to do in order to meet your financial goals.
The best way I’ve found to do both of these things is to have a plan for any money that hits your checking account. With technology today it takes a few clicks or smartphone taps to set up automatic transfers from your checking account into your savings account of choice (emergency savings, IRA, brokerage account, student loan accounts to name a few).
Once you get all of these transfers set up, managing your money becomes a breeze. And you can meet your financial goals with minimal ongoing effort.
Treating your checking account like your money managing robot will make sure your spending less than you earn and paying yourself first month after month.