Automation
Systems and habits that remove willpower from investing
Week 27 Day 1: Automate Everything: Remove Yourself From the Equation
The best financial decisions are the ones you never have to make. Set up automatic transfers, automatic investments, automatic dividend reinvestment, and automatic rebalancing. Then walk away....
Week 27 Day 2: Pay Yourself First: The Golden Rule
Save and invest before you pay any bills. If you wait until the end of the month to 'save what is left,' there will never be anything left. Transfer money to investments on payday, then live on what r...
Week 27 Day 3: The Subscription Model: Treat Investing Like Netflix
You pay Netflix $15/month without thinking about it. You pay your phone bill without agonizing. Treat investing the same way: a fixed monthly subscription that gets auto-debited. Your future self is t...
Week 27 Day 4: The Anti-Budget: Automate Saving, Spend the Rest Guilt-Free
Traditional budgeting (tracking every dollar) works for some people but fails for most. The anti-budget is simpler: save and invest your target amount automatically, then spend whatever is left howeve...
Week 27 Day 5: The Power of Default Settings
People overwhelmingly stick with whatever the default option is. In 401(k) plans, auto-enrollment at 6% results in the vast majority of employees saving exactly 6%. Change your defaults to serve your ...
Week 27 Day 6: Decision Fatigue: Why You Make Bad Money Choices at Night
After a long day of decisions, your brain is exhausted. This is when you impulse-buy, skip your investment transfer, or panic-sell. The solution: make all financial decisions in the morning, automate ...
Week 27 Day 7: The 'Set It and Forget It' Challenge
This week's challenge: set up or verify all of the following automations. Once complete, your finances run themselves. Time required: about 30 minutes. Benefit: decades of effortless wealth building....