Category: Single Money

Emergency Funds – Income vs. Expenses

“Wow! I had way too much money to tide me over when I was unemployed and had bills to pay!”

– said No One Ever

By now, you may heard that it’s best to have 3-6 months of income in your emergency fund. You know your finances better than I ever will, but it seems to me that it’s better to have 6-9 months of expenses socked away for the inevitable rainy day.

Did you see what I did there?

If not, go back and re-read it… there you go! See? In my world, income does not equal expenses when it comes to funding your emergency fund.

The Majority

For a good number of people, the words are interchangeable. It matters not whether they’re saving 6 months of income or 6 months of expenses because the monthly income and monthly outgo are the same number. And who are these good folks? Well, they are the ones who spend every penny that comes into their hot, little hands. They’re people who literally feel money burning holes in their pockets. These ladies and gentlemen will move heaven & earth to spend their money as fast as they can. It matters not if they’re earning a little or a lot – every penny is spent!

These are people who do not live below their means, for whatever reason. For this group, income is equal to expenses.

The Others

However, there is another group of people out there. They are the ones who pay themselves first. Their expenses are less than their income. They’ve managed to create some breathing room in their budget. They have funds that aren’t spent right away. For this second group of good folks, they only need to save 6-9 months of their actual expenses.

There is no point having money sitting idle in an account while waiting for an emergency when it could be sent out to work.

If you’ve been reading my ramblings for any length of time, then you know that I’m an ardent advocate of investing a good portion of your paycheque for long-term growth. This is what I mean when I say that the money not spent on your day-to-day survival should be sent out to work. When your expenses are less than your income, the difference between the two should be invested.

Allow me to be very, very clear. The money that is meant to cover your expenses during an emergency should never be invested for long-term growth. You need not run the risk that the stock market suffers its worst historical drop on the very same day that you lose your job and have to pay the mortgage. Your emergency fund needs to be sitting some place that is both boring and safe, like in a savings account at an online bank. When the emergency happens, you will need to access the funds quickly. You also need to be certain that they will be there. The volatility of the stock market offers no such certainty.

So whatever amount is needed to cover expenses should be in a boring, old savings account.

Money over and above your 6-9 month emergency stash should be sent elsewhere.

Personal Experience

For the sake of transparency, I will confess that what isn’t spent on the Care and Feeding of Blue Lobster is divided into two pots. There’s the long-term pot where I keep my retirement money. That pot is brimming with equity investments that pay me capital gains and dividends every year. Hooray! Then there’s the medium-term pot. This is where I stash the money to pay for things that will happen in the next 1-5 years. This pot pays for the un-sexy necessaries like insurance premiums and taxes. It also covers the fun stuff like vacations, concerts, and gifts.

The bottom line is that these pots are filled with the difference between my income and my expenses. In my case, my emergency fund covers 9 months of expenses. I can now use my money to fund long-term investments and medium term goals, all while knowing that my emergency fund is safely tucked away until I need it.

Why 9 months instead of the minimum of 6? That’s easy. I’ve always believed that it’s better to have more money than needed during an emergency.

A little something else to consider…

Expenses generally include debts. Take your pick – student loans, vehicle loans, mortgage, credit cards, medical, personal loans, veterinary loans, etc… If you’ve used credit, then you have debt. Chances are you’re paying off that debt each month, so your debt payments must be included in your expenses.

Debts don’t disappear just because your job has. That means your emergency fund has to be big enough to cover your debt payments should your income disappear.

But what happens to your emergency fund once your debts disappear?

The necessary minimum size gets smaller!

Excuse me, Blue Lobster? What are you saying?

Let’s say that your monthly expenses are $3500 per month. Part of that is a $1000/mth mortgage (or rent) payment and a $500/mth payment on your vehicle. For the sake of this example, your monthly expenses include $1500 in debt payments.

If you’re building a 6 month emergency fund, you need to have $21,000 set aside to cover your monthly bills in the event of an emergency.

However, once you’ve paid off your debts, then your monthly expenses are only $2000 per month. (This assumes that you don’t replace your former $1500 debt payments with new ones!)

Now, your emergency fund need only be $12,000 to cover six months of your expenses.

Will it take you less time save up an $12,000 emergency fund? Yes – yes, it will.

Getting out of debt means you don’t have to spend as much time building your emergency fund. In this example, the extra $9000 (= $21,000 – $12,000) can be invested for long-term growth that much faster. Ideally, Mystery Person learns to spend cash and doesn’t go back into debt. While Mystery Person goes to work, the $12K sits quietly in an account and the former debt payments are re-directed towards long-term investments.

Saving 6 months will take a long time!

Please go back and re-read the quote at the start of this post. No one promised that saving up an emergency fund would be a quick process. The fact that it takes a long time in no way diminishes the importance of creating one!

Start saving for your emergency fund today. Set up an automatic transfer from your paycheque to an online savings account. Do not get a debit card for this account. Once the money goes in, forget about it. This money is not to be touched unless your livelihood is threatened or gone.

Trust me when I say the following. You won’t want to be worrying about money in the middle of your emergency. Having an emergency fund to pay for things will be a comfort during an emotionally awful time.

Banks are not evil – they’re simply a tool.

Truth be told, it took me a very long time to realize that banks are a tool that will help me achieve my personal finance goals. Every three months, the Big Banks release their earnings. More often than not, those earnings are in the billions, if not the hundreds of millions. And people start frothing with anger at the size of those quarterly earnings. Ink is spilled all over the Internet about how banks are evil and their earnings are obscene.

Two days later, the angry mob has moved on to some other topic upon which to unleash their rage. The banks go back to the business of earning more money so they can hit their next quarterly target.

And I wonder to myself if any one person in the mob realized that banks are a tool?

How banks make money

First off, I want to be very clear that I’m not an expert on the banking industry. I’m just an online citizen who has watched banks operate for the past 35+ years. I even used to work as a bank teller, which was an incredibly educational experience. However, being a bank teller and being a banking expert are two wildly different things.

I’ll share with you what I know.

Banks take money from depositors then lend it to borrowers to earn money. This is the heart of banking. Everything else is a detail.

Depositors have bank accounts and they expect to earn interest on their deposits. As we all know, most bank accounts pay less than 1% interest. Every so often, an online account has a higher rate but it’s usually not anything to get overly excited about.

Banks lend money to people at rates that are higher than what they pay to their depositors. See, from the bank’s perspective, the 1% interest rate is a liability because the bank owes money to someone. Money that’s lent out to borrowers is an asset because it’s going to earn money for the bank.

If the bank owes Depositor 1% per year on a $10,000 bank account, then the bank has a $100 liability since it has to find a way to pay $100 to Depositor in a year’s time. How does the bank do that?

Easy. The bank takes the Depositor’s money – $10,000 – and loans it to Borrower at a rate of 5%. Borrower has promised to repay the bank $500 in a year’s time, because 5% of $10,000 is $500. The Borrower’s $500 debt is the bank’s asset.

The bank collects $500 from Borrower, and pays $100 to Depositor. The bank keeps the $400 spread for itself. Now, I’m sure there are expenses that go along with running a bank, procuring loans, administration of bank accounts, and staffing costs. Whatever is left after paying those expenses is the bank’s profit.

Banks are good at making profits.

Understanding the spread between what is owed to depositors and what is earned from borrowers is what keeps banks profitable.

So how do you turn this to your advantage?

It’s very simple, Gentle Reader. Banks are a tool for you as soon as you buy your first bank share.

Remember how I said that bank earnings are reported quarterly? One of the best features of banks is that they pay dividends to their shareholders. The more bank shares you own, the more dividends you’ll receive.

I used to get irate over bank fees. How dare the bank charge me for using my money? The little vein in my temple would visibly throb if ever I saw so much as a $1 taken from my account to cover an ATM withdrawal, or for anything else.

Eventually, this financial annoyance was removed from my life through 2 actions that I took. First, I opened bank accounts with institutions that did not charge bank fees for daily banking. I was no longer paying bank fees every month. Secondly, I started earning money from everyone else who chose to continue paying bank fees. I bought shares in banks and cashed the dividend cheques every quarter.

I can confidently say that the idea of bank fees no longer enrages me. Even if I do mess up and bounce a cheque, I might have to pay the $35 NSF fee. However, I know that I’ll be getting my money back in a few weeks’ time via my next dividend payment. That fee is a nuisance, but hardly a reason for me to get upset.

Banks are necessary.

I firmly believe that everyone needs atleast two bank accounts – a chequing account and a savings account. The chequing account is for your day to day money. It’s for receiving your paycheque, buying your groceries, paying utilities bills, and the expenses of day-to-day life. Your savings account is for your emergency fund. It’s meant to be a liquid pool of funds that can cover 6-12 months of your monthly expenses. Some people argue that an emergency fund can be 3 months of expenses. I’m a big believer in the idea that more money is better when an emergency strikes so it can’t hurt to have more than the minimum.

Banks are not evil, in and of themselves. Used properly, they facilitate the transfer of money into your investment account. You know that I’m a huge fan of automatic transfers. I’m a proponent of paying yourself first. A portion of every paycheque should be sent to your investment account, so that it can start working to ensure the Future You has a financially comfortable lifestyle.

For my part, I have several bank accounts. And all of them are designated for a specific purpose. Some accounts hold money for my annual travel. (Even during the pandemic, I’ve socked away a few coins for the eventual day when I feel comfortable enough sharing a plane with others.) Other accounts hold money for my annual insurance premiums and property taxes. I have an account for little luxuries like my theatre subscription to Broadway Across Canada. There’s also an account for maintenance and repairs to my home.

Again, banks are a tool – they’re not evil. Learn to use them properly and you’ll find that they offer many great methods for handling your money. Better yet, become a shareholder and receive a slice of their profits every three months. I’ve no doubt you’ll enjoy the feeling of the banks paying you instead of the other way around!

Housing Prices & Interest Rates

When I was a kid, one of the things I learned from my mother was that interest rates are inversely correlated to housing prices. If interest rates are going down, then housing prices are going up.

Over the last 12 months, I’ve seen this lesson play out in real life. By the time this blog post goes live, we will have passed the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, there are cities in this country where the housing market is red-hot. People are tripping over themselves to buy homes and they’re “winning” bidding wars to do so.

Five-year mortgage rates in my corner of the world had been on offer for as low as 1.84% up until just recently. At the time of writing this article, they’re slowly creeping up but a few can still be found at just around 2%. The Talking Heads in the media are predicting that 5-year rates will increase steadily over the next year. They say that this will be due to the economy fully re-opening as everyone gets their vaccine.

Who am I to argue with the Talking Heads?

The corollary to my mother’s great insight is that house prices drop as interest rates rise. This is due to the fact that fewer people can afford house payments when the cost of borrowing increases. Fewer people buying is a fancy way of saying lower demand. Less demand for something forces sellers to drop prices in order to sell their goods. In the housing market, rising interest rates are very strongly linked to decreasing housing prices.

For the past 10 years or so, the interest rates for mortgages have been less than 4%. I can tell you that my very first mortgage – taken out nearly 20 years ago – was for 6.5%. That seems astronomically high by today’s standards! When I was teenager and working part time as a grocery store cashier, I worked with folks who were thrilled to get a mortgage at 8%. The super-low mortgage rates of the past decade have been normalized, and I worry that people forget that rates can also move in the other direction.

Two Minds

I’m of two minds when it comes to housing. Buying a house was a very smart move for me. I was fortunate enough to buy what I needed at a price that was less than 3 times my gross income. The mortgage payments were less than 30% of my take-home pay. I could afford the repairs and maintenance that come with a house. Taxes and insurance weren’t an onerous burden on top of these other costs. The monthly nut associated with my shelter did not inhibit my ability to invest for retirement, travel, and have a bit of fun with my family and friends.

In short, buying a house was a good move for me… 20 years ago.

Today, twenty years later, I’m not so sure that buying a house would be a good financial move for me. For starters, I would have to choose between servicing the monthly nut of homeownership and every other financial goal. My mortgage, property taxes, insurance, repairs & maintenance would render me house-poor for a very long time. There wouldn’t be room in my budget for things like retirement savings, travel, entertainment, vehicle replacement, or those little luxuries that make like easier. My financial life would revolve entirely around paying for my housing, and there would be no room for my other money priorities.

I used to think that renting was a bad idea. However, my perspective has become more nuanced. If renting allows one to have a balanced life, then I think it might be a good idea. Of course, that balance has to include maxing out all retirement savings and building an investing portfolio. Those investments need to be big enough to pay for rental accommodations when the paycheques stop arriving. Whether you own a house or rent your space, you need to pay for shelter one way or another.

Cheap rates aren’t here to stay.

Today’s very low 5-year mortgage rates will go up. Securing a mortgage at 1.84% is wonderful, but that rate is likely only going to be locked in for 5 years. (And only for those who were lucky enough to grab it!) At renewal, the rate might be 3.5% or higher. Can your crystal ball predict the future perfectly? Will your budget be able to survive the mortgage payment increase that will come with a higher mortgage rate? Are you positive that you’ll still have the same income that you have now?

Even if your job’s salary stays the same, will your other expenses do the same? I’ve noticed that the cost of my streaming service goes up every 18 months or so. The price of food hasn’t gone down, ever. Taxes seem to only ever move in one direction. The list goes on. Life gets more expensive every year, yet salaries and wages don’t always go up in tandem with the increased expenses of every day life.

So even if you were only of the lucky ones to grab a super-cheap mortgage rate for a five-year portion of your mortgage, I strongly urge you to calculate how much your mortgage payment will increase when you renew. It’s not too, too crazy to believe that the bond market will push the five year rate up by 50 basis points each year for the next five years. Add 2.5% to your current rate and see what your new payment will be. Can you handle it?

Alternatives

Your first option is to pick rich parents. It’s been my observation that some parents with an excess of money are willing to help their offspring purchase a home. Financially speaking, it’s wonderful to have that kind of help to get onto the property ladder.

Not all of us can pick our parents, so that means being a little more creative.

If I were starting out today, I’d be looking at becoming a landlord. Either I’d try to buy a house with a rental suite or I would have roommates. There would have to be someone else around to contribute to the mortgage payments. If my salary paid for the minimum monthly mortgage payment, then the tenant’s rent would be what I would use for the extra payments to principle.

Would it be ideal? No. Would it have to last forever? Also, no.

A third alternative would be waiting to buy. Like I said earlier, house prices will come down as mortgage rates go up. Figure out how much of a mortgage you can afford. This number will be different than what the bank says you can afford. After all, you’re the one who’ll be responsible for the payments so look at your budget and be realistic.

Once you know how much mortgage you can comfortably carry, open an account at EQ Bank and start salting that mortgage payment away. This benefits you two ways. First, you’ll get used to having a mortgage payment since you’ll have to make that payment once you’ve signed the mortgage documents. Second, this money will help you make as large a down payment as possible.

I’m not trying to dissuade you from buying a house. Truly, I’m not. I just want you to think long and hard about the financial commitment that owning your own home will entail.

In a world without pensions, I am not persuaded that it’s a good idea for a person to spend 25-30 years paying off a mortgage without the ability to save for retirement. A mortgage debt that leads to an extended hand-to-mouth lifestyle is rarely a good thing. It limits options and inhibits one’s ability to pursue their true dreams, goals, and desires.

The Secret Sauce Isn’t Being Bright

Being bright isn’t a requirement to being successful with personal finance and investing. I speak from personal experience as I don’t consider myself to be overly bright. There are many people in my circle who are much smarter than me and who learn things much faster than I do. Their net worths are not necessarily larger than mine. It’s taken me a long time to accept the fact that being bright has very little to do with whether someone will succeed in the realm of money.

Those who’ve read this blog for a little while know that I’ve erred during my investment journey. I’m the first to admit that I’m not the smartest investor in the room. I’ve made so many mistakes!

  • When I first started investing years ago, I put my money into mutual funds instead of index funds and exchange-traded funds.
  • Investing in mutual funds instead of index funds & ETFs means I paid higher management expense ratios than I needed to pay.
  • I invested in dividend-based ETFs instead of buying equity-based ETFs.
  • I didn’t earn as much as I could have during the 10-year stock market bull run that ended in February of 2020. (D’oh! How I would love to be able to unwind that mistake.)
  • And I don’t increase the rent on my rental property every year. I’m sure there are some in the real estate investment community who see this as a very grave mistake.

Despite these mistakes (and I’ve made way more than 5), I’ve learned that you don’t have to be all that bright to do well in personal finance. You do need to have disposable income, since you can’t invest what you don’t have. I’ve crafted a list of traits that I believe are essential to successfully building wealth.

Being smart is not one of the traits!

You have to start from where you are. No investor has ever made money without starting to invest. Thinking about investing is great but people don’t earn 7% returns on investments they only dream about. They only earn returns on money that’s actually invested in real life, whether that’s in the stock market, in real estate, or in a business. Investing your first dollar isn’t a function of being bright. It’s a function of taking action.

Consistency isn’t dependent on how bright you are either. I’m a huge fan of automated transfers. Every time I get paid, some of my net income is siphoned away from my chequing account. That money is invested to pay for my future goals: retirement, travel, house renovations, whatever. If the money is for a planned purchase that’s not part of my day-to-day basic life, such as groceries, gasoline, and utilities, then the money is automatically whisked into various accounts and it stays in place until it’s time to make those future purchases. Automated transfers have ensured that I’ve always had money going towards my investments.

No one needs to be all that bright to be disciplined. You’ll need to be disciplined if you’re going to stick to your priorities. You’re the only expert when it comes to how best to spend your money because only you know what’s most important to you when it comes time to spend it. It also means that you’re the only one who’s responsible to say “No” to the things that don’t move you towards your dreams. Believe me when I say that there is alway someone who wants your money. Being bright is not a pre-condition of only spending your money in ways that align with your priorities.

Finally, never stop learning. Like I said earlier, I’m not particularly bright. And it takes a long time for me to learn new things and for concepts to sink it. THAT’S OKAY!!!! Learning at my own pace isn’t an obstacle to achieving my goals. If anything, it’s a benefit. Once I’ve been exposed to a new concept, I can learn it as thoroughly as I want to. And once I’ve done that, I can determine whether it will help me meet my financial priorities.

No one is grading your progress.

I’m not in school anymore. There’s no teacher under a time pressure to get through a pre-set curriculum. I’m my own teacher now. Taking as much time as I need to teach myself a particular concept is a good thing in real life. Unlike a school setting, there isn’t a fixed number of hours to be spent teaching one concept before the teacher moves on to the next one. I’ve been investing for over 25 years, and I still don’t understand how Price-to-Earnings ratios work. Is it better if they’re high or low? What exactly do they mean? Do they fluctuate every day? What are the factors that impact them?

Hear me now: I’ve been investing in the stock market for 25+ years, and I did not let my ignorance about P/E ratios stop me from building a solid portfolio that kicks off a nice amount of dividends each year. Admittedly, I’m not a stock-picker. In other words, I don’t buy individual stocks after analyzing their annual reports and doing research into both the company and the industry. If I were an investor who had gone the stock picking route, then I would have learned a lot more about P/E ratios and other nuanced stuff. The information is out there and I would have spent my time learning about it.

When it comes to being good with your money, habits will always beat brains in the long run. Being smart isn’t what helped me the most. Having the investing habit and putting automatic transfers in place has been my secret sauce. Together, these tools have been tremendously more beneficial for my portfolio and for meeting my short-term goals. Once I had prioritized how to spend my money, relying on habits and tools propelled me towards attaining my goals.

Being bright is not an indicator of whether you will be successful in handling your money. Again, speaking from personal experience, you can make stupid money mistakes and still set yourself up for future financial success.

5 Traits to Become Wealthy

Ever since I started learning about personal finance, I’ve noted that those who are successful at it have 5 traits in common. These 5 traits appear regardless of the path taken. Some people invested in the stock market, either through stock picking, mutual funds, or exchange-traded funds. Others became real estate investors and built a portfolio of rental properties. Then there’s the group of people who only invested in their retirement accounts and grew those a nice 7-figure amount before retirement.

Regardless of the path chosen, the people who accumulated a comfortable cash cushion all appear to have relied on the same 5 traits to become wealthy.

The Word “No”

To my mind, saying “No” is fundamental to achieving your goals. There will always be someone or something who wants your money. If you’re unable to say “No” to the requests that stop you from meeting your priorities, then how will you ever be able to create the life that you want?

Gathering the funds to meet your financial objectives will require you to use the word “No”, a lot. Let’s pretend that you want to start investing in real estate. Unless you can use the strategies Richard Fain discusses in this video, you’ll need a down payment to get into the real estate market. Saving for a down payment may take you a year or two. If you don’t use the word “No” when faced with other opportunities to spend, then it’s going to take you considerably longer to achieve your goal.

Delayed Gratification

This trait is a kissing cousin of the first one. It’s the ability to say “No…not right now.” It’s the ability to delay saying “yes” to whatever it is that you might want.

Instead of going into debt to buy something today, you save up the cash and buy it tomorrow.

Delayed gratification keeps you out of debt. If you pay cash, then you’re not using credit. When you don’t use credit, then you don’t pay interest to a creditor. The beauty of not paying interest is that more of your money can be spent on the pursuit of your life’s dreams.

Be honest with yourself. Wouldn’t you prefer to spend your money on your dreams instead of spending your money to pay off debts for purchases that don’t align with your financial desires?

Sinking Funds

My long-time readers know that I love sinking funds! I use them all the time because they help me to organize and track my money so that I can get what I prioritize most. Between sinking funds and automatic transfers, I very rarely need to think about how I’m going to pay for things. My paycheque lands in my chequing account. My automatic transfers whisk pre-determined amounts of money to each of my sinking funds. Whatever’s left over once the transfers have done their task is mine to spend freely.

  • Retirement money? Check!
  • Emergency funds? Check!
  • Insurance premiums? Check!
  • TFSA contribution? Check!
  • House renovations? Check!
  • Travel money? Check!
  • Utilities? Check!
  • Charitable donations? Check!

Your priorities will determine your sinking funds. If you want to buy your first home, or your first rental property, then you’ll have a sinking fund for your down payment. This is where you’ll direct a certain portion of your income until you have the down payment that you need to make your purchase. This sinking fund might be in place for one year, two years, five years, or more. It hardly matters. What does matter is that you are saving money towards one of the goals that is most important to you.

Some sinking funds will last longer than other. For example, your retirement funds are just a long-term sinking fund. You save and invest money in a retirement account so that the funds can replace your paycheque when you stop working for a living. However, your sinking fund for utilities exists to hold money that will be spent within the next 30 days. The money goes in – the bills arrive – the money goes out to pay the bills.

Whether designed to pay for long-term goals like retirement or financial independence, or to pay for short-term goals like paying your utilities, sinking funds are integral part of your financial toolbox.

Living Below Your Means

If you earn $60,000 and spend every penny, then there’s no way to build wealth. Your net worth remains at $0 because nothing is set aside for investing.

However, earning $60,000 and spending $59,000 means that there’s $1,000 available for investing. That $1,000 is available because you made the choice to live below your means. The money can go towards the down payment on a real estate purchase. It can be invested for retirement. It can be the seed money for a business.

Leftover money doesn’t happen by accident. Trust me – there is no amount of money that cannot be spent. The more you earn, the more spending opportunities you will find. The duty to impose spending limits in your life rests solely on your shoulders .

Money

Surprised that I saved this one for last?

You shouldn’t be. Its priority in this list is irrelevant. Whether you earn a little or a lot, wealth will always elude you if you can’t implement the first 4 traits that I’ve already discussed.

Let’s say you earn $250,000 every month…but you don’t know how to say “No” when presented with the opportunity to rent a yacht for the week to party in Monaco. And you’ll need to rent a private jet to get there since you can’t rely on traditional airlines to get you there on time. Let’s face it – when you’re earning $3Million per year, do you really want to travel on Air Canada? Or even British Airways if you can afford to rent a private jet for you and a few of your closest friends?

Let’s say that you earn $35,000 in a year, and you manage to set aside $3,000. You are living beneath your means. Those dollars might be allocated between a variety of sinking funds. You employed the trait of delayed gratification. The reason you have that $3,000 in the first place is because you said “No” to the various requests for your money.

Unless you impose some kind of spending limit on yourself, the money will be gone. It doesn’t matter how much you earn. This is why the simple act of earning money is insufficient proof that a person is also building wealth. It takes all 5 traits to become wealthy.

Without the first 4 traits, no amount of money will make you wealthy because you will spend it all. You cannot be financially wealthy without money.

Create Money Pots and Organize Your Money

Welcome to 2021! A bright and shiny new year stretches out in front of us. Have you figured out what you want to do with it? Any resolutions in place yet? Or do you firmly believe every new dawn brings you the chance to change you life as you see fit?

Whichever philosophy you adopt, I’d like to suggest that you organize your money in a way that best suits your lifestyle.

You know how your recurring monthly bills arrive every other day? It could be a bill for a utility like electricity, heat, or water. On the other hand, it could be bill for some service that you makes your life a little bit easier, like a housekeeper, or lawn service. Maybe it’s a subscription for some kind of pampering service, like a wine-of-the-month club or food delivery. Whether by email or by snail-mail, there always seems to be some utility/service provider out there who wants to receive some portion your hard-earned money:

  • $13.99 for Netflix;
  • $400 to heat your house;
  • $14.95 for your Audible books;
  • $104.71 to keep your mobile phone turned on;
  • $57.85 to keep the weeds away;
  • $60-$140 for your wine subscription;
  • $115 for your gym membership;
  • $Y-amount for product/service-of-your-choice.

You get my drift. Between you, me and the fencepost, it’s more likely than not that you have way more monthly subscriptions than the few I’ve listed above. Who do you know who has only one streaming service? I know people who pay for cable on top of Netflix, Crave, and Disney+!!!

And even though you agreed to pay for each of these utilities and/or services, are you ever truly and deeply excited to actually get the bill? Does your heart leap with joy when it’s time to pay for what you’ve ordered? Or is it more often the case that you ask yourself where the money is going to come from in order to cover the cost?

It’s been my experience that the fun is in the having of the whatever-it-is, not in the paying for the whatever-it-is.

Here’s another couple of questions for you. And you need not share your answer with the class if you don’t want to. I just want you to be brutally honest with yourself… Are you ever caught off-guard by these payment demands? Are the words “I thought I just paid for this!” a part of your daily lexicon?

If so, then I have the perfect solution for you.

Introducing the money pot.

Sadly, it is not the one at the end of the rainbow. Nope, these nifty little caches of coins are ones that you will fill yourself. You create money pots to segregate your funds based on their intended purpose.

A money pot is the place where you set aside money from each paycheque to pay for various things. In this particular circumstance, you should create a money pot dedicated to your recurring bills. If you use your money pot correctly, I promise that you will never again have to scrounge around for money to pay your monthly bills.

Money pots are an integral part of your financial armamentarium. Think of them as stopover points for your money. The money arrives via your paycheque, stays in the money pots for a little bit, then leaves again to pay for its intended purpose. If you create a dedicated money pot for your recurring bills and use it as intended, its balance will fluctuate without ever growing significantly. Money will go in – bills will arrive – money will go back out to pay them.

Where does the money come from?

You’ll fund this money pot by adding up your monthly recurring bills then ensure that this amount of money finds its way into your utilities/services money pot every money. If you receive atleast 2 paycheques each month, then you can automatically transfer half of that amount to you money pot. If you’re paid monthly, then the full amount comes out of your paycheque and goes straight into your money pot.

Let’s say your monthly recurring bills are $1000 each month and you’re paid every two weeks. You’ll set up an automatic transfer of $500 every two weeks. That money will be sent to the money pot dedicated to your monthly bills. By having these funds set aside, you can pay your recurring bills as they arrive. You have the comfort of knowing that your money pot will be replenished every 14 days. No more scrounging around for the cash to pay your bills!

From this point forward, your automatic transfer should be automatically funding your money pot every time that you are paid. To be blunt, set things up so that your paycheque goes into your chequing account and then some of it is automatically transferred to your money pot. Recurring bills land in your inbox or mailbox and you pay them immediately from the money pot.

You know what else is great about this system? You’re in control of the size of your monthly bills. If you want to shell out less each month, then you can do so. And if you think your life needs a little something extra each month, then you’re in charge of that decision too. The amount of money going into your money pot is entirely up to you.

Divide and Conquer for the Win!

It’s been my experience that having one stash of cash from which to pay everything makes it rather easy to delude one’s self. The precise details of the delusion vary but, at its heart is the false belief that a large balance in one’s chequing account means that all the money therein is suitable for spending willy-nilly. Don’t feel bad if you’ve ever succumbed to this fantasy. You’re human and this illusion is particularly seductive.

Frankly speaking, the majority of mere mortals aren’t particularly good at ensuring today’s wants do not take priority over tomorrow’s needs. It’s okay to admit it – wants are generally more fun that needs! 

You’ve heard me talk about sinking funds before. Once you’ve identified your priorities, you direct your money to paying for them by relying on automatic transfers. The money pot for your recurring monthly bills is a sinking fund designed to handle the very short-term demands on your money. You’ll use the funds within the money pot to pay for the routine bills that come around every 30 days. It is to be kept separate from your emergency funds, your retirement funds, and your investment portfolio. This is not the money that you spend on groceries, clothing, or vacations. This money is for funding those bills that come around, month-in-and-month-out, until such time as you cancel them.

Since you’re the only one in charge of your money, it’s on you to ensure that your recurring utility bills are funded, before you start spending on your wants. Creating and funding a money pot for your recurring bills is an effective way to complete this monthly chore.

Trust me on this! Automatically funding a money pot for all of your recurring monthly bills guarantees that the money doesn’t “accidentally” get spent on something else. 

The Day After…

Hope you had a good Christmas, even if you may not have celebrated exactly as you would’ve pre-pandemic. And if you were able to celebrate in your normal fashion, then good on you. Another Christmas is in the history books.

It is now the day after the extra calories, the all-day pjs, the gifts, the video calls, the sports games, the board games, the laughter. The preparation and the anticipation can all be put away for another year. If you’ve taken time off this week, I would urge you to take a few minutes to ponder upon and flesh out next year’s financial goals.

What new things do you want to accomplish in 2021?

If you’re satisfied with your life as it is, what do you need to do to stay on your chosen path?

Either way, you should have a good grasp of how you want to spend your time and your money next year. Both are precious and neither should ever be wasted.

The day after is as good a day as any other to make the necessary plans to ensure that you’re moving towards the life you really want to live.

See you in 2021!

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Weekly Tip: Never stop learning about money.