What was I waiting for. I should have .... sooner!

[easysurfer]

Fill in the blank for whatever you wish.

For me, it's switching over from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome as my web browser. While surfing with IE, my computer was just limping along and hanging on pages. Now, I can actually surf the web in peace again.

 

[pb4uski]

used auto-pay for my monthly bills

My 2012 New Year's resolution was to follow my 28 yo daughter's advice and set up my monthly bills to be auto-pay (previously I used Quicken Bill Pay). Not only is it easier, but I also save the $10 a month that Bill Pay was costing me - a win-win for sure. It has work out great for me.

 

[easysurfer]

used auto-pay for my monthly bills

My 2012 New Year's resolution was to follow my 28 yo daughter's advice and set up my monthly bills to be auto-pay (previously I used Quicken Bill Pay). Not only is it easier, but I also save the $10 a month that Bill Pay was costing me - a win-win for sure. It has work out great for me.

That's a good one. I had a friend who used to pay by online banking. I always thought that's just an extra step when one can auto pay directly from the checking account.

 

[Rambler]

...retired...

I'm finding the frustration of the transition to my successor more than I had imagined. He had a pretty serious accident, could not come when scheduled, asked for a well designed set of meetings for the next attempt (which I did plan for him), then threw it all up in the air and asked for it to be re-done (again) due to personal issues. Being the nice guy that I am, I had already offered to come back for a week for the transition meetings after my retirement date, due to his accident and injuries. I am now a hair's breadth from telling him to figure it out himself.

R

 

[donheff]

used auto-pay for my monthly bills

My 2012 New Year's resolution was to follow my 28 yo daughter's advice and set up my monthly bills to be auto-pay (previously I used Quicken Bill Pay). Not only is it easier, but I also save the $10 a month that Bill Pay was costing me - a win-win for sure. It has work out great for me.

Me too. I don't trust anyone so was reluctant to justt pay bills automatically but I haven't found any billing problems and it is so much easier to accommodate travel.

 

[kyounge1956]

Me too. I don't trust anyone so was reluctant to justt pay bills automatically but I haven't found any billing problems and it is so much easier to accommodate travel.

used auto-pay for my monthly bills

My 2012 New Year's resolution was to follow my 28 yo daughter's advice and set up my monthly bills to be auto-pay (previously I used Quicken Bill Pay). Not only is it easier, but I also save the $10 a month that Bill Pay was costing me - a win-win for sure. It has work out great for me.

Even though I have my paycheck automatically deposited, I've mostly passed on automatic billing, because my paycheck is on a biweekly cycle and most bills are monthly. When I first started my job my finances were slender enough that having the bill arrive the day before the paycheck could have been a big problem. Even though I now usually have more than enough to make the different cycles a non-issue, until recently, I still haven't taken advantage of automatic payment except for my life insurance, because it's such a tiny amount, and my car insurance, because it's legally required and a mega hassle if I procrastinate paying and the policy lapses. But I do plan to put many more things on auto-pay when I retire and have a monthly pension check rather than a biweekly paycheck. I've gotten a start on bill automation by putting the homeowner's insurance for my new house on auto-pay, and I can also have income tax and health insurance premiums deducted automatically from my pension check once I retire. Maybe long term care insurance too--I still need to ask about that.

I would like to ask you auto-payment fans, if you have a bill that's on a cycle other than monthly, how do you handle that? Do you have one account for ongoing bills and one for other expenses, and transfer a monthly budget amount from "other" to "ongoing"? Or do you put amounts for the non-monthly bills in savings until the bill comes? (It hardly seems worth the bother at today's interest rates.) I think either of these methods could be automated if both accounts were at the same bank. Or do you just leave money in a single checking account for months until the semi-annual or annual bill comes due?

 

[Bestwifeever]

Fill in the blank for whatever you wish.

For me, it's switching over from Internet Explorer to Google Chrome as my web browser. While surfing with IE, my computer was just limping along and hanging on pages. Now, I can actually surf the web in peace again.

This is a great thread, ES. We have a lot of things we hope to say this about soon! Right now I can say it about my no-contract smart phone even if I hit the wrong letters on its crowded keyboard sometimes.

 

[pb4uski]

....I would like to ask you auto-payment fans, if you have a bill that's on a cycle other than monthly, how do you handle that? Do you have one account for ongoing bills and one for other expenses, and transfer a monthly budget amount from "other" to "ongoing"? Or do you put amounts for the non-monthly bills in savings until the bill comes? (It hardly seems worth the bother at today's interest rates.) I think either of these methods could be automated if both accounts were at the same bank. Or do you just leave money in a single checking account for months until the semi-annual or annual bill comes due?

I have three accounts at our credit union, one savings and two checking. One checking is for manual checks (very few these days) and the other is for electronic bill pay and auto pays. I usually try to keep at least a month's worth of expenses in this bill paying checking account.

When I was working, a set amount that was designed to cover my "normal" monthly bills went into my checking account twice a month and the remainder of my net pay went into savings. I loosely monitor the checking account balance and periodically transfer money from savings to checking as needed if I make a big purchase or large, non-routine bills like my annual property tax bill, annual auto and home insurance, etc.

Now I do roughly the same thing except my checking account deposits are now monthly rather than twice a month.

So essentially everything is in savings and I transfer money to the manual checks account and the bill paying checking account as needed to make sure checks don't bounce.

 

[pb4uski]

This is a great thread, ES. We have a lot of things we hope to say this about soon! Right now I can say it about my no-contract smart phone even if I hit the wrong letters on its crowded keyboard sometimes.

Actually, that is another good one for me. We switched all of our cell phones from a Verizon family plan to individual AT&T go phones. We don;t have smart phones and only use them as a convenience when away from the house shopping or traveling.

Verizon coverage was poor at our new home. We are no longer locked into a contract and given our minimal usage, our cell phone bill is about $9 per month per phone - so $27 a month for the three of us vs about $80 under the family plan.

 

[KingB]

used auto-pay for my monthly bills

My 2012 New Year's resolution was to follow my 28 yo daughter's advice and set up my monthly bills to be auto-pay (previously I used Quicken Bill Pay). Not only is it easier, but I also save the $10 a month that Bill Pay was costing me - a win-win for sure. It has work out great for me.

You can have a win-win-win by having the bill automatically charged to your credit card and getting the points. Some utility companies will do this while others prefer to get it from your bank accounts.

 

[Alan]

I would like to ask you auto-payment fans, if you have a bill that's on a cycle other than monthly, how do you handle that? Do you have one account for ongoing bills and one for other expenses, and transfer a monthly budget amount from "other" to "ongoing"? Or do you put amounts for the non-monthly bills in savings until the bill comes? (It hardly seems worth the bother at today's interest rates.) I think either of these methods could be automated if both accounts were at the same bank. Or do you just leave money in a single checking account for months until the semi-annual or annual bill comes due?

You can have a win-win-win by having the bill automatically charged to your credit card and getting the points. Some utility companies will do this while others prefer to get it from your bank accounts.

+1

I don't have any non-monthly bills that don't go to a credit card.

I use Google Calendar for reminders, including annual reminders.

 

[Mulligan]

+1

I don't have any non-monthly bills that don't go to a credit card.

I use Google Calendar for reminders, including annual reminders.

I looked recently to move my utility bills to the CC to gain additional cash back points, but they all want to slap service charges on the bill if I would do that. So I will just continue to help keep a company mail room employee employed by continuing to mail the bill in by check.

 

[urn2bfree]

Learned about investing in low cost index funds...
so much wasted on trying to pick stocks

 

[kyounge1956]

I don't have any non-monthly bills that don't go to a credit card.

I use Google Calendar for reminders, including annual reminders.

why do you have a reminder when the bills are on automatic payment or your credit card?

 

[JustMeUC]

Finally broke away from Apple. I got locked in with the ipod some 10 or so years ago and found it easier to just go with the flow and went all apple including my computer and ipad. I finally got fed up with itunes an android smart phone and have been so incredibly happy since leaving the apple fold although I do still have the ipad....

 

[Alan]

why do you have a reminder when the bills are on automatic payment or your credit card?

I use Google calendar for reminders, and I have plenty of reminders for all sorts of things, including annual automatic payments, particularly if that automatic payment is coming from the bank account rather than to a credit card. (I just remembered that DW has 2 annual payments going out from our UK bank account)

For annual payments a calendar reminder is a useful prompt that a charge is about to hit, and for me to log on and be sure the CC on file has not expired etc.

 

[Alan]

I looked recently to move my utility bills to the CC to gain additional cash back points, but they all want to slap service charges on the bill if I would do that. So I will just continue to help keep a company mail room employee employed by continuing to mail the bill in by check.

That was the case for us in Baton Rouge. We paid those bills via auto-pay from our bank account. Where we live in Texas there is no additional charge for CC so I prefer that method.

It is important for us to have things either on automatic to bank or CC, or be billable and payable on-line as we spend several months a year away from home.

 

[donheff]

I use Google calendar for reminders, and I have plenty of reminders for all sorts of things, including annual automatic payments, particularly if that automatic payment is coming from the bank account rather than to a credit card. (I just remembered that DW has 2 annual payments going out from our UK bank account)

For annual payments a calendar reminder is a useful prompt that a charge is about to hit, and for me to log on and be sure the CC on file has not expired etc.

I use calendar reminders for all sorts of things. I wish it would wake me up in the morning.

 

[David1961]

Investing on my own. I remember the first mutual fund I bought. I researched and analyzed and thought about it for months. Even after I "decided" to take the plunge I waited for more months before I wrote the check (yes in those days you had to mail a check). I was in my 20s and felt like I had to be an expert on the market to know what to do. Just did not feel competent. Research is a very important aspect of any investment decision, but at some point, you have to jump in.

 

[rbmrtn]

I would like to ask you auto-payment fans, if you have a bill that's on a cycle other than monthly, how do you handle that? Do you have one account for ongoing bills and one for other expenses, and transfer a monthly budget amount from "other" to "ongoing"? Or do you put amounts for the non-monthly bills in savings until the bill comes? (It hardly seems worth the bother at today's interest rates.) I think either of these methods could be automated if both accounts were at the same bank. Or do you just leave money in a single checking account for months until the semi-annual or annual bill comes due?

I put as much as I can on CC ( 1.5% cash back ). Most of the monthly bills with autopay using the CC. I then pay CC once a month from checking. semi annual like auto insurance, yearly Property tax and Home Ins. goes on CC as well. Not automatic but the cash back is few hundred $ over a year.

 

[rbmrtn]

Investing on my own. I remember the first mutual fund I bought. I researched and analyzed and thought about it for months. Even after I "decided" to take the plunge I waited for more months before I wrote the check (yes in those days you had to mail a check). I was in my 20s and felt like I had to be an expert on the market to know what to do. Just did not feel competent. Research is a very important aspect of any investment decision, but at some point, you have to jump in.

Yea I remember that... Fidelity Magellan. I was sweating because it had a 3% load. I made a small fortune off that thanks to Peter Lynch ( some managers are worth it ).

 

[Lsbcal]

Although I respect the people on Bogleheads and agree with many of the principles, I've learned to apply indexing vs active, buy-hold vs some timing, in a hybrid fashion. So I've found in recent years it doesn't pay to be too doctrinaire with investments.

 

[walkinwood]

When we prepping our nj home for sale, we had the windows professionally cleaned - our immediate reactions was - why didn't we do this before? We normally did stuff as it was needed so we got to enjoy the upgrades/repairs, but this just didn't occur to us.

 

[Nords]

What was I waiting for. I should have .... sooner!

You guys see a straight line like that and immediately launch into discussions about Web browsers and personal finance?!?

My first three thoughts were:
Sex.
[-]Drugs.[/-] Beer.
Rock & roll...

 

[meierlde]

I looked recently to move my utility bills to the CC to gain additional cash back points, but they all want to slap service charges on the bill if I would do that. So I will just continue to help keep a company mail room employee employed by continuing to mail the bill in by check.

In general companies have outsourced this to banks who run what is called lockbox services, you will note most bills go to P.O.Box xyz which is likely connected to a bank which opens the bills deposits the checks and tells the company who and how much was paid.