When You Pay Is In Your Control

On Paper We Do Have Enough – Part 5

Allow me to remind you of what the biggest problem is to paying bills, the imbalance of paydays to bill-days.  The reason we know this is because we’ve been there.  Let me say this, you can’t name a financial situation or crisis that Pamela and I have not experienced.  It’s actually through these experiences that we developed these tools, strategies, and answers to becoming better at managing our financial obligations.

The imbalance of paydays to bill-days causes a significant problem for all normal people.  51% or better struggle in this area which means you are not alone.  No one likes to admit it.  I understand because we were there.  Take a look at the image below to get a picture of what we mean by imbalance of payday to bill-pay.

We discussed this one big problem in a previous post, but today we will look at this normal imbalance and discuss what we can control and what we can not.

Bill-days are hard to control.
It’s very difficult to get all your bill due dates to align on your scheduled paydays.  Even if you were able to get the majority, there are a few that just aren’t flexible.  So making your bill-days bend to you is a hard, nearly impossible feat.  So why bother, especially if another solution exists?

When we pay our bills is in our control.
You might not think this is a true statement, but when you pay your bills is in your control.  No bill collector can put a gun to your head to make you pay on or by a certain date.  Of course you know this already.  If this were the case there would be no late payments.  So if when you pay is in your control, why not use this to your advantage?  What an uncommon thought!

Here’s what you should do to take control.
What if you spread your bills evenly across the number of paydays you have?  Let’s say you have $800 in bills for the entire month.  The goal is to spread the $800 across the number paydays.  Say it’s two, then you need to manage $400 in bills per payday.  Accomplishing this will keep two problems from occurring:

1. 1. You won’t run out of money for yourself by trying to pay them all at once.
   2. You won’t run the risk of spending unnecessary money and running short of bill money by month’s end.

I know you have tons of questions, but one of the most frequently asked when I suggest splitting the bills is what happens with those large ones that take up most of one payday?  You split it.  If you didn’t know this, I can’t think of any businesses that wouldn’t take multiple payments.  They might not like it but if you submit a payment they more than likely will process it no matter the amount.  Give it a shot.

Today is Friday!
What could be possible for you if you took control of the one problem most bill payers face?  Could your financial disposition turn around?  What I do know is this.  If you do the same things you’ve been doing, you’ll continue to have the very same results.  Next week we will provide an example on how to spread your bills across your paydays and give tips our how to create your very own bill-pay cheat sheet.

Question: What questions do you have regarding this normal imbalance of payday to bill-pay?  Leave us a comment below.