I realized, recently, after I saw the Pinterest quote above (credit: CleverGirlFinance), that I no longer notice when payday is.
Sure, I eventually notice when paychecks land in our bank account (which I keep track of through our budgeting software YNAB), and I put them into our “To Be Budgeted” envelope to save for the following month, but I don’t remember if it’s this Thursday or next Thursday that paychecks will hit.
I will often let a few days or even a week go by before I do anything with that money, because I forget it’s there.
I don’t worry about when our paychecks will hit because we no longer need this week’s paycheck to pay our bills.
Believe me, I worried about when we got paid plenty before this past year. Even though we were debt free and on our way to FI, I still had to make sure we had enough cash in our accounts to pay the bills.
It’s only after getting a month ahead in our budgeting that I no longer worry or think about when we get paid, because we use last month’s income to pay this month’s bills.
And it’s as awesome as it sounds.
We should have made it a financial priority years ago to get a month ahead in our budgeting. It means we have so much less worry and anxiety around paying the bills. I never have to madly check my bank balance right before the 18th of the month (when our credit card bill is automatically paid) because I know we’ll have the money available to pay the bill.
Continue reading “What It Feels Like to Forget It’s PayDay (and How to Get There)”