The Bill Pay Cheat Sheet

On Paper We Do Have Enough – Part 6

You may not realize this, but the hard work of you becoming a bill-paying-ninja is almost done.  You’re moments away from having a plan that works and will save you years of headaches.  Let’s get started.  The goal today is to take your bills and spread them across your set paydays.  Just like you have a todo list in your office or on your bedroom dresser for the things you need to get done by when, we’re going to create a todo list of your bills.  This todo list will outline what items are to be paid with each pay period respectively.  This todo list will be your way of solving the biggest problem all bill payers face.  This todo list will align your bills to your paydays.

How to Make Your Bill Pay Todo List

Step 1 – Identify the number of paydays you have in a month (1, 2, or 4).  For our example, let’s say it’s two.

Step 2 – Separate your bills so they can be evenly distributed across  each pay period.  There are two options you should consider when separating.

A.) Separate by number.  You should try to spread as many of the bills across each pay period so that the numbers balance.  See example below.  You’ll notice that payday-1 and payday-2 have roughly the same number of line items.  Payday-1 has 12 and payday-2 has 11.

B.) Separate by amounts.  You should try to balance the amounts so that payday-1 and 2 have roughly the same total.  This means you’ll end up splitting a few of your line items between pay periods (see items in green below).  Regardless, try to split them as evenly as you can.

Step 3 – Once you have the list, format similar to the illustration above.  Assign dates to payday-1 and payday-2.  This printed listing will become the guide you need to follow for successful bill-paying.

Today is Friday!
If you haven’t noticed, it’s my goal to make everything you do in life less complex and as simple as possible.  There are two words that describe me, simple and organized.  Make paying your bills less of a hassle by using this simple and organized way for bill-pay.  Next week, we will have the last installment in this series where we will discuss a few implementation strategies.

Question: what questions are you having regarding your bill-pay process?  Maybe we can help.  Leave a comment below.