Have you ever thought about how to automate your money? Do you even know what that means? I didn’t for a long time. I feel like I have more money to spend since putting these systems in place and I haven’t received a promotion!

One thing that’s automatic about your money is that I’m pretty certain you get paid on the same day each month. Your boss has decided that the work you’ve done deserves a monetary reward. And he’s right! Payday for you might be at the start of the month, the end of the month or somewhere in the middle. It doesn’t matter. All being well, that’s step one complete! Nice.

WARNING! If you don’t have a regular paycheque, bookmark this page, get a regular income and then we can teach you how to automate your money. Good luck!

Why you should automate your money

With no structure to my regular payments, I didn’t know what I could spend through the whole month. A treat for myself on the 10th might mean a late bill on the 18th. Not a good place to be. Late bills mean late fee, late fees lead to anger, anger leads to suffering.

I get paid on the last working day of the month. Therefore, my system is in place so that anything left in my bank account after the 3rd of the following month  is my spending money. Brilliant!

I could narrow this down, but I like to give myself a little breathing space, in case my pay is late going in, or due to bank holidays, though this has never happened.  But think of that, by  the 3rd, or even 1st day after your payday, all of your bills are paid, credit cards are paid, savings account(s) topped up and you can be ready to have fun!

How to automate your money

Online banking is a diamond when it comes to automation, I Bank with Lloyds and their interface is so easy! If you have online accounts for all of your bills and banks, you’re already one step ahead! It’s not essential however, companies sill use phones. Remember those things, where you talk to people with your voice? Hello 1990’s. Weird.

You will need to collect a list of all your direct debits and standing orders and any regular outgoing payment. You you make any payment manually on a regular basis, you should really swap it to an automatic direct debit if it’s to a big company, or a standing order if direct debit is not available.

Once you have all of your regular outgoings, you need to contact all of these companies or people and request that you change the payment day to the day after you pay day. Luckily most companies will let you do this online and you’ll just get a pro-rata payment where the amount fluctuates one month to account for the change. If not, pick up that phone thing and call them.

DON’T pay to call premium rate numbers if you can help it! I can almost always find a local rate alternative on SayNoTo0870.com that I can call from my mobile for free!

I’ll be honest, it’s no high adrenaline ride, but if you learn to automate your money, you with thank me. The same principals can be applied to joint accounts too.

 

TL;DR – How to Automate your Money

1. Get a list of every regular outgoing payment
2. Be sure to pay all regular payments automatically with a Direct Debit or Standing Order.
3. Contact companies or log on to their sites to change Direct Debits/Standing Orders to pay the day after payday.