ExFlyBoy5
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
A recent blog post from Mr Money Mustache got me thinking. The beginning of the post starts off explaining that most of his bills are on auto pay and he doesn't really pay too much attention to the amount (kinda my assumption) since the threat of depleting his stash is pretty minimal. What did get me thinking is the hands off approach of it.
I too have most of my bills on auto pay (to a credit card) and I don't sweat the amount. When it's hot outside, I run the AC at a temperature that *I* find comfortable, not what is comfortable for my bank account. Nonetheless, I still track my expenses very closely and know pretty much how much electricity I use on a daily basis. I can tell you how much energy is expended for the larger energy hogs and can even tell you the exact rates I will pay for a given month. So, although my bills are indeed "hands off" and I am generally "worry free" since I consider the race won I still pay pretty close attention to my spending. Barring a complete financial melt down of the US economy the would result in military pensions being turned off...I will most likely never be "broke".
So, what are your thoughts? Are you a hands off/worry free type, or on the other end of the spectrum? I think I am somewhere in the middle of it all.
MMM Article
I too have most of my bills on auto pay (to a credit card) and I don't sweat the amount. When it's hot outside, I run the AC at a temperature that *I* find comfortable, not what is comfortable for my bank account. Nonetheless, I still track my expenses very closely and know pretty much how much electricity I use on a daily basis. I can tell you how much energy is expended for the larger energy hogs and can even tell you the exact rates I will pay for a given month. So, although my bills are indeed "hands off" and I am generally "worry free" since I consider the race won I still pay pretty close attention to my spending. Barring a complete financial melt down of the US economy the would result in military pensions being turned off...I will most likely never be "broke".
So, what are your thoughts? Are you a hands off/worry free type, or on the other end of the spectrum? I think I am somewhere in the middle of it all.
MMM Article
There have been a lot of big bills coming across my kitchen table recently. Property taxes, car registrations, income taxes, things for the school orchestra in which little MM plays the standup bass. Plus the usual credit card bills for all my spending on groceries and not-all-that-rare luxury indulgences. There’s nothing bad or unexpected in this pile of bills, but I still see it adding up to a tidy sum.
But this morning as I was looking at the latest one – a bill from the City of Longmont for all the various utilities, I noticed that the same familiar feeling crept across my chest that I had felt for all of these other expenses: a feeling of warmth and reassurance.
The utility bill had a little note on it that said “DON’T PAY – account is being paid by credit card.”
So I can be reassured that whenever the due date comes up, the right amount of money will be sucked out of my credit card account to pay for the electricity and gas and water and trash service. And then whenever that credit card bill is due, another automatic payment will suck the right amount of money out of my checking account, and I’ll remain debt free.