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How to Manage Your Money Like a Pro with Automation
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How to Manage Your Money Like a Pro with Automation

Banking, Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, Personal Spending

How to Manage Your Money Like a Pro with Automation

Have you heard of decision fatigue? The idea is pretty simple. According to this article from the AMA, decision fatigue refers to “the idea that after making many decisions, your ability to make more and more decisions over the course of a day becomes worse.” Thanks to this phenomenon, it pays to reduce the number of decisions you need to make in a day. That’s where automation comes in.

Automation = Better Financial Habits

Automation is your money’s best friend. By automating your finances, you reduce your opportunities for decision making and decision fatigue, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind about saving money or paying a bill in full. By reducing your decisions you set yourself up for success! Automation can build up your savings and pay off your bills, without any extra effort on your part. So, how can you use automation as a financial tool?

Automate Your Bill Payments

There are many different facets of your finances which can benefit from automation. Automating your bills is a good place to start. Many banks have online bill pay options available that help you pay your regular monthly bills on time. In particular, automation is a good way to ensure you always pay your credit card balance in full, so that you don’t accrue any interest fees. However, one important thing to be aware of when automating your bills is that you will need to stay aware of your bank balance, to avoid over-drafting your account. As long as you keep an eye on your balance, automating your bills is a good way to avoid late fees, build good credit, and stay on top of your finances.

Automate Your Savings

The other major arena of your finances that definitely deserves some automation-attention is your savings. I touched briefly on automating your savings in an earlier article, which you can read here. The most important thing about automating your savings is that if money automatically gets moved out of your spending account, you have no chance to spend it. That makes saving that much easier! We do this with our retirement savings, and it really helps us keep it up. A great resource for further information about automating your savings is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.

If you liked this article and want more tips on financial organization that will make your life a LOT easier, you’ll probably enjoy a free copy of my eBook, 9 Secrets of Financial Self Care. Click here or below to download it!

By Angela Keller|2023-04-27T08:04:53-07:00April 27th, 2023|Categories: Banking, Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, Personal Spending|Tags: automation, banking, decision fatigue, financial decision making, financial planning, financial priorities, financial success, money priorities, organize, retirement, retirement planning|0 Comments

Why Organizing Your Banking Passwords is Key to Financial Success
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Why Organizing Your Banking Passwords is Key to Financial Success

Banking, Financial Clarity

Why Organizing Your Banking Passwords is Key to Financial Success

Quick win alert: Organizing your passwords for your banking websites and other financial institutions can take you less than an hour, but revolutionize the way you interact with your finances.

Why is Organizing Your Passwords Important?

Because when we don’t know a password to check our bank balance, that can often create enough resistance for us to just not look at our money. As I’ve written about before, many of us live in a state of perpetual vagueness around our finances. The more challenging it is to break out of that fog, the more likely we are to stay there.

Conversely, when you know what your passwords are, it’s way easier to maintain a financial self care routine like a weekly money check-in.

How to Get Organized

First, take stock of all the different websites and digital portals that hold your financial information. Remember to consider both personal and business finances.

This list will obviously include any banks you use, but this also includes sites whose services you use to collect or send money (PayPal, Venmo, Stripe, etc.). Also remember to include any other sites where you manage your money, like investing services or tax filing platforms.

Once you’ve got a list, go and get those passwords! Centralize them in one place. You can do this using the old-fashioned paper and pen, or use a password-management app. There are quite a few out there, here’s a list.

Once you’re all done, you’ll see why this little tip is well-worth the time! If you enjoyed this article, you’ll probably like my e-Book, 9 Secrets to Financial Self Care. Get your free copy by clicking here.

By Angela Keller|2022-09-21T11:07:04-07:00September 21st, 2022|Categories: Banking, Financial Clarity|Tags: banking, banking tips, financial organization, get organized, how to, organize your money, organize your passwords|0 Comments

How to Create Your Own Paycheck Using a Money System
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How to Create Your Own Paycheck Using a Money System

Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs

How to Create Your Own Paycheck Using a Money System

I know you like being your own boss, but do you ever have paycheck envy? Do you ever wish you could get a paid vacation? Do you get tired of the feast or famine in your personal income? Especially with creative or freelance work, this can be a real issue for some of us. Fortunately, when you create money systems around your business income, you can create a solopreneur paycheck, by paying yourself first.

The System

Setting up a paycheck for yourself is simple. Every time you collect income, set aside a portion in a separate account just for your pay. Then pay yourself out of that account, but leave a portion in the account. The balance in this account will build over time so that you eventually have a cushion built up to even out dips in income, or even pay yourself while you take a holiday.

Determining Amounts

How much should you pay yourself each round? A good place to start is keeping track of your personal expenses and ensuring you cover those every month. After that, it’s a simple question of what to do with any extra income you may have made that month. You may choose to leave it all in the account to build up your balance, or take out an extra allowance if you’ve earned a reward. Setting up reward systems for yourself can be another motivator to keep your money systems consistent, organized, and ensure they meet your needs.

More in-depth information on creating a solopreneur paycheck can be found in my money mapping series. Part II discusses setting up a solopreneur paycheck in the context of your larger money system.

If you liked reading this, you might enjoy my free eBook, the Cash Flow Reboot Guide. This resource gives you a bunch of actionable steps to take to ensure that your business can thrive through times of financial uncertainty. Click below to grab your free copy!

By Angela Keller|2022-04-11T12:05:06-07:00April 11th, 2022|Categories: Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: banking, money mapping, money system, money systems, pay yourself first, paycheck, personal finances, Profit First, savings strategies, small business, solopreneur paycheck|0 Comments

Are Your Business and Personal Finances Mixed? Here’s Why You Need to Separate Them
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Are Your Business and Personal Finances Mixed? Here’s Why You Need to Separate Them

Banking, Personal Savings, Personal Spending, Small Business

Are Your Business and Personal Finances Mixed? Here’s Why You Need to Separate Them

Let’s get real here – many solopreneurs I work with mix their business and personal finances. If you’re running a one-person show, a side-hustle, or a business that has few transactions, it might seem sensible. Why open the extra account? It might also be difficult to put the time in to really untangle everything. Oftentimes, expenses and income seem to land in a gray area between business and personal.

While this strategy might seem like it saves you time and money, separating your business finances from your personal finances is much more profitable in the long run. Here are a couple reasons for that:

Simplify Your Record Keeping

You want all the numerical data from your business available with a few clicks. If you keep your personal and business finances separate, it’s much more possible to simplify your record keeping and make that possible. Here are a few pieces of info you have much better access to if you do it this way:

How much income your business is making and whether it’s supporting itself
All information needed for tax time. Having your accounts separated and that information readily available means you’re less likely to give up and overpay on your taxes.
Which offerings and times of year are most profitable for your business.
What your business is spending on and whether you’re getting a return

Along with having clear ways to see all of these metrics, you can also deeply reduce your stress level when your records are simple. The value of this is not to be underestimated!

Learn About Your Business & Boost Your Profit

As you can imagine, having easy access to the information above can do wonders for your bottom line. You can tap into yearly or seasonal income cycles and focus your offerings to generate more revenue. You can also make business spending decisions much more easily, and learn what investments can help your business become more profitable.

If your business is currently not making enough money to support itself, you can look through your records to understand why this is, and come up with solutions. Lastly, having a clear idea of how much you need to pay for taxes can prevent you from overpaying, and lead to more profit in the long run.

Your financial metrics tell the story of your business. Separating them from your personal banking makes it so much more simple to check in on your business finances.

Get Clear on How Much You Need to Make

Aside from providing valuable information about the state of your business finances, separating them from your personal accounts will also clarify some personal finance questions for you. You’ll be able to clearly see how much money you’re spending on your lifestyle every month.

This can help you determine what you need to pay yourself from your business. Creating personalized income goals according to what you value in your life can make running your business more personally meaningful.

Take This to The Bank

Now that I’ve made a case for separating your business and personal finances, let’s go over two different ways you can do this. In the beginning of this article, I mentioned that some solopreneurs think its sensible to avoid opening another account. It’s true that this can help you bypass banking fees associated with business accounts.

Sometimes I work with clients who are just starting a small side-hustle. I may advise them to set up a system that helps them keep a comfortable distance between their personal and business finances, without actually opening another account. Usually, this involves opening a sub-savings account at your bank, and creating a detailed money map and tracking spreadsheet.

For people with larger businesses and more transactions, it’s better to open a separate account. Read the section on banking in my free eBook, 3 Essential Steps to Starting a Business, for more thoughts on this setup process. I hope this article helped clarify the many benefits of keeping your business and personal finances separate. Happy banking!

Angela

Image: Tetiana SHYSHKINA

By Angela Keller|2021-09-10T14:39:55-07:00September 10th, 2021|Categories: Banking, Personal Savings, Personal Spending, Small Business|Tags: avoid bank fees, banking, banking tips, business bank account, financial data, financial metrics, income goals, learn about your business, lifestyle cost, personal and business finances, record keeping, tax time advice|0 Comments

Reduce the Hassle: 3 Tips to Keep Your Money System Simple
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Reduce the Hassle: 3 Tips to Keep Your Money System Simple

Banking, Financial Clarity, Small Business

Reduce the Hassle: 3 Tips to Keep Your Money System Simple

When I work with small business owners I often run see this one unfortunate pattern; many business owners believe that your money system has to be complex in order to work. The reality, however, couldn’t be further from that. We’ve already talked about how important having a money system is, and how to visualize it with money-mapping. Keeping your money system simple and streamlined makes it easier to visualize, but also much easier to follow through on and keep organized. If a system requires a bunch of checking in or spreads your money into a bunch of accounts you forget about, it’s not worth the maintenance. Here are three strategies you can use to pare down your business’s money system to a manageable size.

Limit Your Cards

If you’ve got a ton of cards under your business, keeping track of all of them and keeping them paid off can be difficult. To make it easier on you, I suggest paring down the number of cards you use. This will help you better keep track of your bills, credit rewards, and any other info associated with your cards.

Please note, I’m not advocating for closing any of your credit cards, as this can lead to a lowering of your credit score. However, here’s a good guide on how to do that, if you’re interested.

Under One Roof

One recommendation I regularly make to my clients is to consolidate their money into one institutions. If you have business bank accounts at three, four, or five different banks, that’s gotta be hard to stay on top of! Getting it all under one roof will help you keep an eye on your finances as a whole more easily. If you have multiple banks and you’re wondering how to go about consolidating, you might like to read this piece about switching banks we featured a couple years ago. It contains a guide to comparing banking offers and picking to the best option.

Keep Track

Making a regular habit of checking in with your finances. Make this easy by consolidating your passwords to your different accounts and portals. If you don’t have to go searching for passwords before you begin your checkin, you’re way more likely to actually do it!

I also recommend using an app or other tracking system. I especially like Mint.Others also like YNAB, or paper money tracking. Digitally tracking your money can save you some time, while also giving you a quick snapshot of your accounts when you need it.

If you found these tips helpful, you might also like this article on automation, which is another money hack to keep your systems tidy!

Angela

By Angela Keller|2020-01-27T21:52:59-08:00January 27th, 2020|Categories: Banking, Financial Clarity, Small Business|Tags: automation, bank offers, banking, credit cards, how to, money mapping, money system, simplify your money, tips, tracking apps|0 Comments

Pick One of These 5 Ideas To Automate Your Wealth
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Pick One of These 5 Ideas To Automate Your Wealth

Banking, Cash Flow, Personal Savings

Pick One of These 5 Ideas To Automate Your Wealth

Last week we talked about loving our future selves, and dove into the world of IRAs. Today, I’d like to share a way you can love yourself and share the wealth with both future and present you – automation! I’ve written about automation before, and why it is so beneficial to our financial lives. The idea is simple: by automating your finances, you reduce your decision making, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind or forget about saving money or paying a bill in full. Automating your finances make saving money easier and less of a mental effort. This principle is what Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg employ in their wardrobe choices. They’d wear the same thing every day so that they could conserve their brainpower for other more important decisions!

Here are my five ideas you can use to dip your toes into the world of financial automation. Start off slow – just pick one and try it out. If you like your results, you can come back for more!

Automate a Savings Goal

Set up an amount to automatically be sent to a particular savings account for a goal you’re pursuing. Don’t worry about the amount, any amount is great! Simply trying this is the most important step.

Automate a Bill Payment

Automating a bill payment insures you will not pay late fees. In the long run, this could save you a lot of money.

Set an Alert

Many banks offer to send alerts when your account hits a minimum balance. Set this up so you don’t overdraw your account. This way, you can avoid those pesky overdraft fees.

Connect Your Accounts

Connect your accounts to a money management system or app so you can really see where your money is actually going. I use Mint and I love it! Personal Capital is another I’ve heard of, and many people also swear by YNAB, or You Need a Budget.

Set Up Direct Deposit

Have your paycheck automatically deposited into your checking account! This is so much more simple than Pick One of These 5 Ideas to Automate Your Wealth: At Peace With Money having to take all that time and effort to take your paycheck to the bank. Even if you have your own business and have varying income, you can create a solopreneur paycheck using the Profit First system. If you’re interested in reading more about this, I recommend my posts Create Your Own Paycheck and How to Pay Yourself First.

If you enjoy these tips and want more resources on automation, I’ll happily recommend The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach. This book emphasizes how savings habits and automation can help you build up savings for retirement. He also has a variety of free resources available for download on his website, so go ahead and take a look at those too! And of course, if any of this has piqued your interest, I’m happy to talk to you about setting up money systems for your business. Take a look at my service packages and schedule a curiosity call!

☮

Angela

Image Source: Rodion Kutsaev

By Angela Keller|2019-02-27T02:51:57-08:00February 27th, 2019|Categories: Banking, Cash Flow, Personal Savings|Tags: Automatic Millionaire, automation, bank alert, banking, bill payment, book recommendation, David Bach, Mint, pay bills, pay yourself first, Profit First, resources, retirement planning, savings goal, solorepenur paycheck, tips, YNAB, You Need a Budget|0 Comments

Why You Need to Separate Your Business and Personal Finances
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Why You Need to Separate Your Business and Personal Finances

Banking, Bookkeeping Business, Financial Clarity, Profit First, solopreneurs

Why You Need to Separate Your Business and Personal Finances

This article is the second in a month-long series on taking care of your finances as self-care. Specifically, I’m focusing on what you can do with your money to take care of yourself and improve your business in 2019. You can read the whole series by clicking here.

If you’re running a small business, and especially if you’re a solopreneur, chances are your business finances are very intertwined with your personal accounts. When you’re first starting out, it might seem sensible to not open the extra account. But if you want to tend to your business finances, separating them from your personal money is the first step you need to take. Here’s why:

If your business and personal finances are mixed together, any financial information you need about your business is going to get murky, fast. From this unclear standpoint, it can be very difficult to tell whether your business is supporting itself or not. It’s also hard to make decisions about your business spending when your personal spending is mixed in. Separating the two allows you to clearly see where your money is going in your business. Clear financial information is a must for tending to your business finances. It’s what will help you run a more profitable business!

Why You Need to Separate Your Business and Personal Finances: At Peace With Money Separating your accounts also makes things much easier at tax time, when you need that information anyway. Having your accounts separated and that information readily available means you’re less likely to give up and overpay on your taxes. This means more profit for you.

Here’s your step for the week: go ahead and open a business bank account, and transfer your money. As an added bonus, you can download the first 5 chapters of Profit First and use my Profit First Calculator to calculate your amounts for each account. If you’re looking for some support or encouragement, check out my services packages and book a discovery call with me.

I hope this gives you some of the motivation you need to get a jump on your business finances. Happy account-opening!

☮

Angela

Image Sources: Harshal Desai,

By Angela Keller|2019-01-08T01:17:11-08:00January 8th, 2019|Categories: Banking, Bookkeeping Business, Financial Clarity, Profit First, solopreneurs|Tags: accounts, advice, banking, business, business accounts, business bank account, business finances, financial self care 2019, self care, separating personal finances|1 Comment

Create Your Own Paycheck
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Create Your Own Paycheck

Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs

Create Your Own Paycheck

I know you like being your own boss, but do you ever have paycheck envy? Do you ever wish you could get a paid vacation? Do you get tired of the feast or famine in your personal income? Especially with creative or freelance work, this can be a real issue for some of us. Fortunately, when you create money systems around your business income, you can create a solopreneur paycheck, by paying yourself first.

The System

Setting up a paycheck for yourself is simple. Every time you collect income, set aside a portion in a separate account just for your pay. Then pay yourself out of that account, but leave a portion in the account. The balance in this account will build over time so that you eventually have a cushion built up to even out those rough patches and even pay your self while you take a holiday.

Determining Amounts

How much should you pay yourself each round? A good place to start is keeping track of your personal expenses and ensuring you cover those every month. After that, it’s a simple question of what to do with any extra income you may have made that month. You may choose to leave it all in the

account to build up your balance, or take out an extra allowance if you’ve earned a reward. Setting up rewards systems for yourself can be another motivator to keep you money systems consistent, organized, and ensure they meet your needs.

More in-depth information on creating a solopreneur paycheck can be found in the Profit First Book. The first 5 chapters are available to download here on my website. If you’re intrigued by this idea and think you might benefit from a consultation with me, don’t be afraid to reach out and book a discovery call!

☮

Angela

Image Sources: Cody Davis, rawpixel

By Angela Keller|2018-11-08T19:58:06-08:00October 4th, 2018|Categories: Profit First, Small Business, solopreneurs|Tags: banking, money systems, pay day, paycheck, personal finances, Profit First, savings strategies, small business|0 Comments

Why Automation Is Your Money’s BFF
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Why Automation Is Your Money’s BFF

Banking, Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, Personal Spending

Why Automation Is Your Money’s BFF

Automation is your money’s best friend. By automating your finances, you reduce your opportunities for decision making, thereby reducing your chances to change your mind about saving money or paying a bill in full. By reducing your decisions you set yourself up for success! Automation can build up your savings and pay off your bills, without any extra effort on your part. So, how can you use automation as a financial tool?

Automate Everything!

There are many different facets of your finances which can benefit from automation. Automating your bills is a good place to start. Many banks have online bill pay options available that help you pay your regular monthly bills on time. In particular, automation is a good way to ensure you always pay your credit card balance in full, so that you don’t accrue any interest fees. However, one important thing to be aware of when automating your bills is that you will need to stay aware of your bank balance, to avoid over-drafting your account. As long as you keep an eye on your balance, automating your bills is a good way to avoid late fees, build good credit, and stay on top of your finances.

The other major arena of your finances that definitely deserves some automation-attention is your savings. I touched briefly on automating your savings in an earlier article, which you can read here. The most important thing about automating your savings is that if money automatically gets moved out of your spending account, you have no chance to spend it. That makes saving that much easier! We do this with our retirement savings, and it really helps us keep it up. A great resource for further information about automating your savings is The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach.

I hope this motivates you to try out automation with your finances!

☮

Angela

Image Sources: Mitch Lensink, Lucas Silva Pinheiro Santos

By Angela Keller|2018-06-11T19:43:23-07:00June 11th, 2018|Categories: Banking, Financial Clarity, Money Mindset, Personal Savings, Personal Spending|Tags: automation, banking, financial planning, financial priorities, financial success, money priorities, organize, retirement, retirement planning|0 Comments