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Handling Money

Money sucks. Not having money sucks more. Worrying about money is something that, once you realize you're an adult, with people depending on you, it's something you're going to do all the time. It sucks. It can keep you up nights. It can make you get into fights with your significant other. It's just awful.

Fortunately, there are a few things you can do to make it suck less. 
  1. Make two checking accounts and a savings account. If you are living with a significant other, then make 3. One is your bill-paying account. Take the check card that they send with that one and cut it into a thousand pieces. You're not going to carry it around with you. If you share your life and your bills with someone else, this one is a joint account. The other account(s) is where you put your discretionary income. Finally, you have a savings account.
  2. Make a budget. Figure out how much you have to spend on bills each month. Add around 10% as a cushion. Somewhere along the way. If you're paid monthly, this is how much of each pay check goes into the bill-paying account. If biweekly or bimonthly, then half this amount goes in each pay check.
  3. Put a portion of each paycheck into your bills account. If you share your life and you bills with another person, then each of you put money into that joint account in proportion to how much you make. If it takes $1000 a month for you to pay your bills, and you make $1500 a month, and your s.o. makes $750, then you put in $737, and they put in $363 each month. You make twice what they do, but you're both putting in a little over half your check to pay bills.
  4. Of what's left, put around 10% of what's left into savings. In my earlier example, if you had $737 left over, then put $75 each month into savings. Ideally, it should be a saving account that's a little difficult to get to. Just hard enough that you have to put enough effort into it that you can't get the money unless you actually need it. That's your emergency savings money.
  5. Normalize and autopay bills. Get on your local electric company and gas company's budget plans. Set up auto pay on everything, out of the checking account.
  6. Whatever is left is yours to use how you want. You've covered bills. You've set up an emergency fund/nest egg. Now, you have some leftover cash. You can spend it in peace, without worrying about not being able to pay your bills. Similarly, if you you have a significant other, then they can spend what they have left how they like. Since bills are taken care of, then whatever left is free for you to spend on other things.
This strategy has been pretty successful for me and my wife. Money still sucks, and worrying about it blows, but because we're sharing the burdens equally, and because we both know what's going on with bills, it sucks a lot less. This plan might need a little adjustment here or there. If you're saving to buy a house or a car, then set aside a little extra into savings, for example.
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