How to Automate Your Life

by Robin Anderson Real Estate 10/27/2019

Life can get so busy that no matter what you do, you can’t seem to keep up. Between work, school, the kids’ sports, and activities, and a little bit of fun, those housekeeping and personal finance chores can slip past. Soon, you find yourself trying to catch up because a bill got missed or an undone task turned into a complicated maintenance issue.The solution? Or, at least a partial answer: bring on the automation.

Things to automate

Regular monthly bills: Take a single day and set up all your regular incoming bills for automation. Go online to each vendor and set up their free auto-withdrawal from your account. You can do this for your cellphone bill, your cable or satellite bill, your Internet bill, auto insurance, electric and gas bills, water and trash, car payments, homeowners or rental insurance, association dues, health and fitness club dues, school bills, and any other bill you have with an automated withdrawal option. You can set these up to go from a single credit card that you “pre-fund” (see below) so that you don’t have to worry about having enough money in your checking account. You can also set this up from a secondary checking account. 

It’s vital that these automated payments do not pull from the same account that you use for incidentals. The last thing that you need is to overdraw or overdraft an account and then have your automated payments bounce.

Now, list all the remaining monthly outgo. This list includes things like rent or your mortgage payment, loans, credit card bills, and anything else that you can’t automate through its own system. For these bills, go into your account and set up Bill Pay. The way that most bill pay systems work is that they can send electronic payments to specific companies, so always use the electronic version if it’s available.

If no electronic link is available for the payment you need to make—if your bill is from a small, local company, for example—then set up a bill pay check delivery. It is important to note the due dates for check delivery and arrange your payments to be early just in case there is a postal delay.

Protect your arrangements

Once you have this setup, create a separate account for your “spending” money. This is the account that will have your grocery, gas (unless you pay by card), eating out, entertainment, and other casual spending money.

Set up your bank to text you anytime money leaves this account, and to send you your balance once a week (or daily if you spend from it often). That way, you’ll always know if you can afford that latte or nightcap.

If you’re saving to buy a home, make sure to keep those savings in a separate account and automate the transfer from your incoming paycheck into that account too. If you need help knowing how much you need to save up, talk to a real estate professional in the area where you want to buy.

About the Author
Author

Robin Anderson Real Estate

“My Passion is people and relationships and I promise to provide my clients with exceptional service tailored to their individual needs.” -Robin Anderson 

Georgia native, Robin Anderson brings her passion for people and her love of homes to work for her clients. She and her husband, Andy, have been married for over 30 years and have two adult children, Ellen and Drew. They currently live in Fulton County, but Robin has lived and invested in properties throughout metro Atlanta as well as helped clients buy and sell. She has been integral to many real estate endeavors including designing and building several custom homes, remodeling homes, subdividing land, managing rental properties, and buying and selling properties. She spent her first 3 years in real estate working with a new home builder, and she has spent the last 6 years working with buyers and sellers in her own community. Robin is highly motivated but sensitive to the fact that buying and selling homes can be an emotional experience, so she makes it a priority to keep clients closely informed throughout the process and strives to produce quick results. She appreciates the opportunity to help her clients navigate the real estate process, and she aspires to deliver quality customer service that is both informative and positive. She is driven to provide outstanding service for her clients and she is focused on building successful and lasting relationships with her clients. This personalized service earns her enthusiastic referrals from clients she is pleased to call friends.Edit

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