Finances: Planning ahead

How many of us scramble to figure out what bills need to get paid? Bills can seem to sneak up on us because our lives are busy with work, school, and responsibilities in general. Most people would agree that the least fun part of being an adult is paying bills.

Bills don't have to be a chore though. One idea to get bills under control is to make a budget that includes when you pay certain bills during a month cycle. For example, if you get paid every two weeks, you can count on that income as the basis of your budget. Then look at the due dates of the bills you receive within a month. Separate the bills into one of your pay periods. In this scenario, there will be two pay periods within the month. It will be best to separate the bills into the payperiods such that the bills never exceed a pay period. Doing this will help to ensure you are not spending more than you are making.

Another tip for handling your bills is to set aside a one hour time block a week to handle bookkeeping. Every week, set aside an hour to check to make sure your checkbook is balanced and bills are ready to be paid.

If you get a handle on these basic techniques, then you might want to try using a credit card to pay for as many of the bills as you can. You should only have credit cards that give you rewards. If you have to pay these bills anyway, you might as well use your credit cards for it. Bills like the Cable company or phone bill make this easy. Of course, there will always be places like the water company that don't take credit cards, but paying the other bills by credit card gives you less bills to have to remember to pay.

Having a consistent system for dealing with the unpleasantness of billpaying allows you to not waste mental energy on such monotonous chores and use that energy toward more important goals and issues.