{"id":1880,"date":"2015-06-10T00:15:02","date_gmt":"2015-06-10T08:15:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/?p=1880"},"modified":"2015-06-09T05:13:16","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T13:13:16","slug":"how-to-effectively-pay-yourself-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/how-to-effectively-pay-yourself-first\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Effectively Pay Yourself First"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Trying<\/a>I was balancing my checkbook last weekend and after paying the bills and the babysitter I was left with $82.56. \u00a0Since I\u2019ve been making a lot more money over the past few months you\u2019d think there would be a lot more money sitting in my checking account.<\/p>\n

But the thing is, I haven\u2019t changed my system at all.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpay yourself first\u201d principle is something that I\u2019ve managed to stick with and has gone extremely well.<\/p>\n

I spend the same amount of money regardless of how much I earn. I eat the exact same things. Go (or don\u2019t go) to the exact same places. And when the checking account gets down to $82.56 it means it\u2019s time to get a little creative.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I am able to save money each and every month.<\/p>\n

I Pretend Like I\u2019m Broke<\/h2>\n

If you were hoping for some magic secret that made this strategy a little easier I\u2019m sorry because I don\u2019t have it.<\/p>\n

I put a certain amount of my income into checking each week (Jamie\u2019s check goes in there too) I pay the bills, do my grocery shopping, and if there\u2019s money left over for something I want to do that\u2019s great. But often times there just isn\u2019t and that\u2019s fine too.<\/p>\n

When that set amount of money is gone it\u2019s gone.<\/p>\n

And really it\u2019s not bad pretending like you\u2019re broke when you don\u2019t spend much money anyway. Especially considering that most of my preferred activities are free or super cheap. (Fishing, mushroom hunting, playing catch with the girls, visiting family, babysitting my niece and nephew, etc.)<\/p>\n

I Save Certain Income Streams<\/h2>\n

The beautiful thing about working online is that my income comes from many different places.<\/p>\n

One strategy that I\u2019ve been using for a long time is to save certain income streams. This has worked out exceptionally well because the income streams that I save have rapidly grown and the income streams that I spend seem to stay right around the same every month.<\/p>\n

I Have Savings Direct Deposited<\/h2>\n

Of the income streams that I do save I have them directly deposited into my savings account. Then I log into my savings account a couple times a month just to make sure everything has made it in there alright. (Which it always does!)<\/p>\n

With this strategy I never have to touch the money or move it around. I don\u2019t see it and I simply pretend like it\u2019s not even there.<\/p>\n

Do I Always Stick With This?<\/h2>\n

There have been two occasions that I can think of where I had to use some of my dedicated savings. The first was when I forget about the six months insurance premium coming due and the second was when we had a bunch of physical therapy bills come in that I thought would\u2019ve been covered by insurance.<\/p>\n

It seemed to make a lot more sense to just go ahead and delay that savings rather than pull the money from the emergency fund just to put it right back.<\/p>\n

How to Get Started Paying Yourself First<\/h2>\n

If you\u2019re new to the concept of paying yourself first or are just unable to make it work here are the strategies that really helped me get started.<\/p>\n

Have a Goal<\/strong><\/p>\n

You need to have a goal that means something to you to make this work. For me this has been buying a house<\/a> and just overall financial stability and eventually financial freedom.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll be so much less stressed if you can build yourself a nice cash buffer.<\/p>\n

Start Small<\/strong><\/p>\n

Start with any amount of money you can \u2013 even if that\u2019s just five dollars per week. If you can have that amount automatically taken from your check into your savings then definitely go that route!<\/p>\n

After getting divorced there was no amount that was too small for me to save. I\u2019d stash away $8 here, $4 there, and just anything that I could afford to spare.<\/p>\n

Use Specific Income Streams<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you seriously can\u2019t afford to even stash an extra dollar per week away then you need to create yourself an extra income stream. In a year from now you\u2019ll be so glad that you did!<\/p>\n

Start trying stuff out and see what sticks. It might take a lot of trial and error (but eventually you\u2019ll find a good second source of income. Save all of it!<\/p>\n

Check out:\u00a0Ways to make an extra $500 per month.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Be Aware of Lifestyle Inflation<\/h2>\n

The biggest tip I can give you is to be aware of lifestyle inflation. If you can comfortably live off of $3,000 per month then never put more than $3,000 per month into your checking. This will keep your from going on a spending rampage. (Because sometimes that\u2019s tempting to do!)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say you can NEVER increase your spending it just needs to be a well thought out process.<\/p>\n

Money is a tool to help you create the life you want to live. That\u2019s it. Keep in that mind and it will help you stay on track.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was balancing my checkbook last weekend and after paying the bills and the babysitter I was left with $82.56. \u00a0Since I\u2019ve been making a lot more money over the past few months you\u2019d think there would be a lot more money sitting in my checking account. But the thing is, I haven\u2019t changed my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1881,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,14],"tags":[494],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1880\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cultofmoney.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}