Automating Your Finances: Wise Money Management Tips

Wise money management is all about automating your finances. 

Most people don’t realize how much time and energy they can save by automating their finances. They’re busy with work, family, friends, hobbies – and the list goes on. 

But managing your money doesn’t have to be a never-ending source of stress. Nor does it have to take up a lot of time.

Let’s discuss some money management tips to help you automate your finances. So you can save yourself the time and hassle. 

What Does it Mean to Automate Your Finances?

You’re putting your money on autopilot.

When you automate your finances, you’re setting up systems. Your bills, savings, investments, donations, and more are paid every month automatically.

When your finances are automated, you guarantee you’re paying your bills on time and avoid late fees.

And once set up, the only thing you have to do is make sure everything is working as it should.

Why You Should Automate Your Finances

Money can be a complex topic. It’s not easy to stay on top of everything that goes into managing your money each month.

But one way to help simplify your finances is by automating them.

Automating your finances will allow you to focus on other essential tasks. While also helping you save more money in the long run. 

What Should You Automate?

Automate Your Budget

Automating your budget reduces errors and makes it super easy to see where all your money is going.

You can start and automate your budget by using a budgeting tool. I recommend you use Mint, Personal Capital, EveryDollar, or YNAB.

Yes, some of these apps and companies will charge you for using the software they provide. But I use or have used all of them at one point in my life. 

And I also recommend paying the monthly fee that normally comes with a premium budgeting tool. The paid features are usually worth it.

They also do all the loading and tracking of your transactions from all your other accounts like your credit cards and purchases from your checking account.

Once you pick a budgeting tool, your bank, credit cards, retirement accounts, and more will all be in one place.

You can then drag and drop your transactions into your budget categories like food, utilities, and shopping. This makes it super easy to keep track of your spending habits over long periods. And it will ensure you’re saving enough to reach your long-term goals.

Automate Your Savings

Automated saving is a great way to force yourself into wise money management habits. 

It’s the only thing you have to do to make sure you save money each month. 

You get paid, and the system you’ve created will do the rest. It’ll transfer money from your paycheck right into your savings account.

Plus, automatic transfers will make saving money easier for you. And automation will also make you less tempted to spend the money you’ve earned on other things. 

And there are a lot of different ways you can automate and save your money. Like setting up automatic transfers from your checking to savings account every day, week, or month, for example. 

Figure out what works best for you and set your very own wise money management system up. 

Some banks even have their own internal automated savings systems. They make it easy for you to save by rounding up the amount charged on purchases made with your credit or debit card.

So let’s say you buy something for $19.99. The bank will take the extra penny and move it into your savings account for you. Or a different account or emergency fund of your choice.

Automate Your Bills

I hate having to manually log in and pay my bills every month. So I’ve automated all of them.

And I think you should do the same. Take some time and learn how to pay as many of your bills as possible using automatic payments.

You can set up automatic payments on most services. 

For example, your:

  • Mortgage
  • Utilities
  • Student Loans
  • Memberships
  • Subscriptions

And more – can all be automated.

If you rent, it is a bit harder to pay your rent automatically. But if you want to make it happen, I’m sure you can find a way.

When done, you won’t ever forget to pay any of your bills or miss a due date. Because with automatic payments, you can set it up once and move on with your life. Wise money management is all about systems.

They also guarantee you never have an “oops I missed a payment” moment.

You can set up automatic bill payments from your credit card, debit card, or checking account. But, I prefer to use my credit card because there’s no payment fee associated with it.

And if you’re unsure how to do this, contact the company that provides you the service or bill you want to automate. I’m sure they can tell you how or if it’s not possible at the moment.

Automate Your Investing

Automating your investment contributions will make sure you’re hitting your investment goals.

You can automate the funding of your investment account. As well as your buy and sell orders for stocks, mutual funds, ETFs, and other assets. And more depending on who you have your investment accounts set up with.

Then when it’s complete, regardless of whether the stock market goes up or down, you’ll still have money going into your account and invested.

So even if the market crashes or goes through a patch of down years, your investment will keep on growing. That’s the power of automation.

And wise money management in action.

Another easy way to automate your investments is through your employer’s retirement plan like your 401k, 403b, or TSP account.

Note: You can do the same with other investment accounts like your Roth IRA and brokerage account.

Payroll deductions make doing this easy. You won’t even see the money hit your bank account.

It’s automatically invested before you have a chance to miss it.

Automate Your Donations

If you give or donate regularly, automating is an easy way to make sure it happens.

You can set up automatic donations to your favorite cause, charity, or church. 

You decide how much you want to donate each month. Then have it taken from your checking account each month without having to lift a finger.

Once set up, you’ll never miss an opportunity to give or donate money again. You’re also more likely to keep on giving and donating when it’s automated. 

And if you’re donating to a cause that’s very important to you, who wouldn’t want that?

Automation is a Wise Money Management System

Systems work. So whenever you can automate something, do it. Life’s already complicated enough.

Automation will make things easier and help you stay on track and in control of your finances. Because a massive benefit of automating your finances is the removal of obstacles. 

If you always have to enter transactions manually, you risk forgetting something. You may fail to pay your bills, save, or invest your money. 

But once your finances are automated, it’s one less thing you have to worry about. And after a while, you probably won’t even notice the money leaving and entering your accounts because everything will flow smoother once automated.

Wise money management works but it’s not always 100% perfect. Many people think when something is automated, it doesn’t need to be monitored. But you do have to keep an eye on things. Automation requires changes and new inputs from the person once in a while.

For example, let’s say you have some money automated scheduled to come out of an account. But you haven’t collected your paycheck yet so there isn’t enough money in the account. 

In a situation like this, the consequences can be costly.

Payments might be returned, late fees might pile up, and your bank will charge you a fee for the mistake. An understanding of what’s going on here, adjusting, pausing, skipping, or canceling the automatic withdrawal of the money is needed.

Conclusion

Automation is not for everyone.

To determine if automation will work for you. Do your research and explore your options. Then compare an automated system to what you’re currently using to manage your money.

If automation is the better option, do it. But if it’s not, then don’t do it.

And if you’re not a fan of technology and the automating of your money, automation might not be for you. 

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