I am one of those people who countdown and look forward to payday. I was not like this until a friend told me whenever I’m stressed at work, I should check how many days are left to payday and console myself with the knowledge that I’d get paid soon. I have to admit it works everytime and I joyfully look forward to payday.
It took me awhile to lock a month-end routine that works for me and since I got it right, the benefits are tangible.
My month end routine is split into 4 automated actions and 2 manual actions:
- Pay myself first – my monthly investment amount automatically gets transferred to my brokerage. I have stopped pausing it and just let it go automatically. It’s currently 40% of my net income
- Automated transfer of my share of fixed bills to my Husband – Fixed bills are defined and do not fluctuate so it’s the same amount monthly
- Automated transfer of sinking funds to HYSA
- Automated transfer of planned variable spend to my Revolut account. Even though this is variable, I have a fixed amount for it
- Anything that’s remaining gets moved to my HYSA. If I’m making a sinking fund spend during the month, I transfer the value out of the HYSA
- Prior month’s variable underspend gets moved to my brokerage
I started this routine to ensure there’s a plan for every € and train myself to know I have no extra available to spend beyond what is budgeted. It works unless I intervene and the intervention needs to stop. I have stuck to the routine in January and hope nothing derails me.