There’s a strong persistent myth out there, that things have to be complicated. And I find that myth is even stronger when it comes to money.
If you don’t have “multiple streams of income”, “diversified portfolios”, “options” and money moving around constantly all over the place, “they” would tell you you are doing it wrong.
“They” can STFU as far as I’m concerned. “They” are the problem.
Definitions of complication and complicate:
Complication – a confused or intricate relationship of parts
Complicate – to make or become complex or perplexing, twisted together
I don’t notice, at first, when things start to get complicated. Usually, I’m just trying something out and seeing how it works for me. I will go down a rabbit hole, or two, for a time.
Three months later I wake up. What used to be easy and simple is now a tangled mess. Now it requires even more attention and time than I ever wanted to give it.
And I’m the one who brought it on myself. Sort of.
I take some responsibility but not all of it. We live in a world where the pressure for more (which seems to bring complication along with it) shows up in many different ways.
We are all being hypnotized without even realizing it. Even when we try to break the cycle.
In the chase for simpler and easier, I routinely find myself justifying why I am doing things that make things more complicated for me. I know better. What am I doing?
Really, I just need to stop, reset and simplify again.
Just this last month, angry and resentful with myself, I walked myself through it all. I didn’t want to take the time to untangle the skeins of yarn that I had somehow unknowingly tied all together.
But I did, because I know, I’ll be better off in the long run.
Still I don’t put a lot of time into it – at least not all at once.
My technique for getting my fiances (or anything really) together goes something like this:
Cash Account #1 – Am I tracking it? Do I have access? Is it up to date? Is there anything else on this I can automate?
Then I’m done for the day. Or two. Or three.
The next day:
Cash Account #2 – Am I tracking it? Do I have access? Is it up to date? Is there anything else on this I can automate?
I go through all my accounts this way. This may take me a few days or a few weeks. I’ve had to train myself over the years as a lot of times I feel I “need it all done RIGHT NOW!” Inevitably, when I push through and do that I get angry, tired and overstimulated. That means I miss things and don’t do it in a way that supports me. So I’ve trained myself to five minutes each time. Even if I want to do more.
Then I do my income – same way.
Income #1 – Is it working/depositing? Is it right? Are there changes I may want to make?
Going through these may take a day or two or more, still, eventually it gets done.
Now onto Expenses – everyone’s favorite.
Note: for the last 10 years I have written down everything I spend every day in a spreadsheet. It might be a “pain” but it gives me a complete picture of my spending. And when I don’t pay attention to my account registers for a week or so, I am grateful I have this document. (Plus for other reasons I’ll get to later.)
I have my expenses in categories: Yearly, Bi-Yearly, Quarterly, Bi-Monthly, Monthly, Bi-Weekly, Weekly.
Once you make an initial list, it is so much easier to go in and update. The initial creation might take more than 5 minutes but doing it 5 minutes at a time gets it done. Sometimes I break it down, yearly one day, bi-yearly the next, then quarterly and so on. I do work in advance to keep it manageable in my head while working my way through it.
Then once they are listed, I will look at each one and ask: Is it all getting paid, moving out from the right accounts at the right time? Is there something I can do to make it easier?
Again, here I might only look at a few expenses at a time. Sometimes it is all running smooth and I can breeze through all of it. (That’s because of 10 years of work on this and even now I sometimes break it down even if I could breeze through it.)
After I’ve reviewed everything above, THEN I look at the every day/not scheduled bills like food, gas, clothing, etc. And this is when that spreadsheet tracking all my spending I mentioned earlier comes in handy. I can figure out if I’m trending up or down and if that’s okay with me or if there is a larger change (ie everything is more expensive).
I look at everything as a whole along with my historical data and may make adjustments to my savings or allocations for spending. Again, a few at a time and make a note to make any changes in them.
This could take me a whole weekend, a month, a quarter, half a year. It is something I clean up and update at least twice a year but I find myself having to do it more often as I try to and add something that eventually makes it harder for me and I have to let go.
I started setting up this system 11 years ago – I was on paper then and wasn’t taking the numbers to find yearly or monthly averages until about 4 years ago. I remember when I started I felt hopeless and lost, having no idea what any of this was going to get me – except more to do and beat myself up about.
But after working it for a year or two, I found that it became an asset for me. I could see everything and know where it all was and where I stood. I can quickly and easily track it all in less than 5 minutes a day – usually 2 or 3 or sometimes no minutes, if I’m not spending. It runs in the background of my life, and makes it easier to simplify when I start to over complicate things.
This works for me, it might not work for anyone else but I have found quite a bit of success of 5 minutes or less each day instead of sitting down for 2 hours to “push through” and do things. There is just no need.
