IDEAL BALANCE

Recently we were listening to a fellow entrepreneur we admire and one piece of advice she gave was to use little pockets of time to pay a bill here or there. Have you ever had trouble finding time to pay your bills? Is paying bills zero fun? Do you stress about paying your bills? Do you worry about whether you’ll have enough money at the end of the month to pay your bills?

No more! This system will solve all of those problems!

With this system, we designate a bills account, set it up with a buffer, add direct deposits, automatic bills and more. This bills account becomes your personal assistant, doing all the work for you! There are rules on how to use it and how not to use it which we will share. When you’re done, you can sit back, relax and watch as your bank and your money work for you. This bill system is awesome, but it is usually the first time anyone has tried anything like this so there can be some trepidation. But you’ll be a raving fan before long, we know it.

Problems the Stress Free Bills System Solves:

• Not knowing if a bill got paid or not 
• Late payments
• Late fees
• Overdraft fees
• Not knowing if you have enough money to cover your bills for the rest of the month

Step 1: Designate

You’ll first designate a specific account for bills. This account will be used only for bills and bills only. No spending, no saving, no transferring, no borrowing.

The official definition of a bill is an amount of money owed for goods supplied or services rendered, set out in a printed or written statement of charges. This includes your debt payments for your home, your car, credit cards and any other money you owe people. However, this does not include expenses like money for groceries, gas or personal spending money. It does not include Amazon shopping. It does include HOA fees. 

You’ll choose whether to redesignate an account you already have open (common when bills are already being paid) or open a new account. Both have pros and cons and require different action steps. Either way, remember the bank works for you so there shouldn’t be any surprise fees or minimums. Change banks if you need to.

Next, you’ll rename the account to something fun. Some examples include “Bills Ninja,” “Can’t Touch This,” and “I’m Just a Bill Account.”

Step 2: Set Up

Now it’s time to ensure your direct deposits go into this account. This account is going to be used as a serving platter for other accounts. 

You’ll also deposit a minimum buffer amount (the total of bills that come out of your account in the first half of the month).

Next, get a debit card for this account for those pesky bills that won’t take ACH payments.

Finally, delete any and every other way to spend money out of this account (Amazon, PayPal, etc).

Step 3: Automate

This is where the system starts to take flight! 

You’ll first ensure every bill is being billed from this account. 

You’ll make sure every payment that can come out automatically is coming out automatically. Some banks have a bill pay service that you can set up to work for you if the company in question doesn’t have a way to be billed automatically. Make note of any stubborn bills that require caveman-style payments by check, in person or any non-automatic way.

You’ll make sure each bill is being paid by ACH if possible (fewer fees). 

Finally, you’ll set up paperless billing so you don’t have to deal with any clutter!

Step 4: Supervise

Tada! Now you get to sit back and supervise. You can check things off as they come out if you’d like. You can also set a reminder to pay any of the outlying bills whenever they are due. Eventually, you can get to the place where you do that once a month only. 

Once a month you can also calculate if anything changed and use that money for whatever your financial goal is for the month.