RG20 said:
Exactly, I m not having a problem with having enough money. My issue is with the timing of the income changing and when to pay bills...
I appreciate everyone's reply's and I actually lime the buffer in expenses, although I have about a $2,000 emergency fund, which I know is different.
I guess what I don't understand is -
if there is no cashflow issue, then why don't you just pay the bills when they're due (or better yet, set up autodraft and let it pull automatically).
2 years ago, we were single income with me getting paid every other Friday.
Then my wife started doing some part-time work where she got paid every other Friday as well.
Then I changed jobs to where I got paid on the 15th & the last day of the month while she got paid every other Friday.
Then she changed to subbing at our kids school which pays on like the 25th of the month
following the work (i.e. she'll get paid around October 25th for September sub jobs.
None of it changes anything about our approach to bills because there is a full buffer.
Based on what you've mentioned, it sounds like you probably should just keep more margin in your checking account. My recommendation would be to add up all of your bills for a month and make sure that much is in there (plus a few hundred or so) at the beginning of the month. Then, you'll have bills take some out, paychecks resupply, etc. but you don't really have to care because you have enough in there to cover all of the bills even if NOTHING comes in.
So, if your expenses are $2,000 a month (just using round numbers), make sure you have $2,500 in your account on October 1.
Then, at some point in October you will have paychecks coming in. It doesn't really matter when because you can cover ALL of your bills until then, even if they are all taken out on October 2nd.
In theory, if you stick to your plan, you'll have enough for November in the account on Nov 1 (basically, it will be October 1 balance minus expenses plus paychecks).
Set up everything to autodraft (you can still keep an eye on it, but man - I would not want to think about writing and sending checks) and your system will be on autopilot.
When you have big, unexpected expenses, bring over money from savings to cover them.
When you have nice windfalls, handle them however you want, making sure you keep enough in that account to handle the month.
Let us know if we're still missing anything in particular.