When I became a widower, all of life’s have-to-dos seemed to double. I needed to find a way to simplify, so I could make the most of work and home.
What a long, strange, tumultuous, overwhelming last few years it’s been – for the world at large, and for me personally.
For everyone everywhere, COVID redefined already busy lives by adding childcare, homeschooling, endless Zoom meetings, and an amped-up cleaning and sterilizing regimen to the mix. As we return to normal, I don’t the hecticness subsiding.
For me, I became a widower just before the emergence of COVID. The stress that was put on me both personally and professionally was crushing at times, with the death of my wife Mary meaning not only the loss of my life partner and best friend but the person who took care of family business while I looked after my company.
Mary was responsible for all things financial at the Dri home. I might be the professional financial advisor, but she paid the bills, reconciled the bank accounts, paid off the credit cards, applied for all health insurance reimbursements, took care of our rental properties, and monitored all house maintenance contracts (landscaping, snowplowing, window washing, lawn care, etc.), the list goes on.
If it involved money, Mary was on it. Oh, and this was while taking care of three kids (and me!) and working her part-time bookkeeping job. How did she do it?
I’ve always said I had an easy job in our marriage.
But now, with her gone, I had to take on her past role over and above my already packed 9-to-6. I knew I couldn’t maintain my business life and handle all of Mary’s responsibilities too. I needed a plan – one where I could continue to run my business, be a mom and dad for the kids and, somehow, do all the things that Mary did.
NEVER OVERESTIMATE YOUR ABILITY TO ‘DO IT ALL’
If you read my blogs, you know I tend to overestimate my time availability and take on too much work. So, of course, I assumed I could do my job and Mary’s too.
Huge mistake.
It was a disaster. I was miserable, overwhelmed, and white knuckling through every single day. This couldn’t last.
ZEROING IN ON YOUR ‘UNIQUE ABILITY’
Two of my mentors—Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy—co-wrote a book called Who Not How: The Formula to Achieve Bigger Goals Through Accelerating Teamwork, which changed my mindset – and my life.
The authors argue that when we get a new idea, project or chore, instead of asking ourselves, “HOW am I going to get this done?” we should ask, “WHO should do this?”.
To explain why this resonated with me, you should know that Dan Sullivan believes that business owners (and others) should spend their time in activities for which they have a passion and special talent.
He calls that our unique ability.
The goal is to hire people to take on the tasks that leave you overwhelmed, thus allowing more time to concentrate on your unique abilities where the most value for society is created.
So, if my unique ability is writing blogs on financial planning, then I should spend as much time as possible on it and delegate other activities to people with other unique abilities. If I dislike administration or household chores, then I should find a “who” with unique abilities to complete those functions. In the past that was Mary; her passion was her family, and her unique ability was being our bookkeeper, coordinator, and rock.
Let me share how I applied Dan and Benjamin’s philosophy to simplifying my life – specifically, my personal financial life. And remember, this advice applies to everyone, not just widows or widowers like myself. Because everyone could use a life less busy.
NINE CAN’T-LOSE TIPS TO SIMPLIFY YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE
1. ONE BANK ACCOUNT AT ONE BANK
How many bank accounts do you have? How many banks do you deal with? How often do you transfer money from one bank or bank account to another?
This is a complexity that can go away. It wastes time and is prone to human error. At one time, I had several accounts at CIBC, TD, and Scotiabank. My salary was deposited into a Scotia account but the bills were paid from a CIBC account, while my business expenses were paid from TD and Scotia. It was a mess of multiple transfers between accounts, and we often got hit with interest charges from money being in the wrong place at the same time.
Ultimately, this was an easy fix. I closed all my bank accounts except my one chequing account. That’s it. I don’t even have a savings account.
Life’s a lot easier today, with only excess cash transferred monthly out of this account to my Scotia Wealth Management account (my brokerage account).
2. ONE CREDIT CARD
Like my bank accounts, I had several Visas and Mastercards. Some of them I never even used, but I kept them just in case. (“Just in case” of what?)
Did I really need all of these cards? Each card had a different payment date, I couldn’t keep them all straight. And they made my wallet bulky.
So, I cancelled them all except for the Scotiabank Visa. Now I’m on top of my cards (or “card”, singular) and I never miss a payment date.
3. BANK ONLINE
Now that I’m down to one bank account, one brokerage account, and one credit card, having them all connected and available online is a major time saver.
Today, I can go into my Scotiabank online account and see all my cash balances, investment accounts, mortgages (on my rental properties), Visa balance, credit score, and many other useful tools.
And of course, I complete all my bill payments from just one link. Consolidation is a wonderful thing.
4. AUTOMATE YOUR BILLS
Most people pay the same bills every month, and a surprising number still put cheques in the mail – an act that’s time-consuming and prone to error.
These are my recurring bills: property taxes, water and waste, hydro, natural gas (delivered by Enbridge, a long-time holding in our dividend model), telephone and cable, car lease, and life insurance. I’ve established auto payments for each of these through a pre-authorized chequing plan from my single bank account.
For my nonrecurring expenses (groceries, haircuts, clothing, gas, travel, wardrobe updates, and so on), I use my one and only Visa and make one electronic payment.
For any bills that can’t be paid by Visa, I use an e-transfer.
To sum up: pre-authorized chequing. Visa. e-Transfer. Simple. Easy. Streamlined.
5. AUTOMATE SPEND TRACKING
I hate budgeting and tracking expenses. Hate it. But I’m a financial planner and know how important these are to my goal of becoming financially independent.
I wasn’t interested in building an Excel spreadsheet and manually tracking every single penny.
Lucky for me, our Dri Financial team member Ashley Land, mentioned an app called Mint (owned by Intuit) – you can connect it to your bank and easily download all expenses and income into a simple-to-read income statement.
It’s not just a time saver. For me, it’s a life saver.
Once a week, I click a button and all my transactions (incoming and outgoing) are automatically downloaded and organized into a personal statement and compared against a budget that I established at the top of the year. The program syncs in real-time, and I know exactly how my money is spent — and I can easily decrease spending if needed.
It took a little start-up time; to set my budget and make sure all my expenses were allocated to the proper accounts but now, my weekly review takes about 30 minutes and includes paying any non-recurring bills.
6. SIMPLIFY GROCERIES AND MEALS
Food planning and prep is one of the most time-consuming aspects of life. Even thinking about what I’m going to eat tonight decreases my bandwidth for more important things.
Making a shopping list, driving to the grocery store, shopping, standing in line at checkout, unloading, deciding what to cook, and cooking it… how many hours a week does that eat up? (Pardon the pun.) I haven’t counted, but it’s a lot.
My solution? Meal kits. I love meal kits.
Each week, I review 20-30 meal choices and buy ten kits (five each) for my daughter and me. They’re all delivered Sunday afternoon, and each has all the ingredients for one meal. With some practice, each meal takes about 30-40 minutes to prepare.
Any other groceries that I need (veggies, fruits, cereals, toiletries) are ordered online and delivered straight to my house.
Meal kits can save you six to eight hours per week. What would you do with an extra six to eight hours per week? That’s a full extra work day! (Or play, your call!)
7. DELEGATE PERSONAL CHORES
I like a clean house, especially a sparkling kitchen and washrooms. But I don’t like doing it. Housework definitely isn’t my unique ability; when I tried it, the house become cluttered, dusty, and dirty.
I turned to a professional cleaning company that provided bonded employees and accepted Visa payments. The company arrives once every two weeks and cleans the entire house. It’s still my job to declutter and do the laundry, but that’s a fraction of the overall work and time.
For the grass and snow, I hired a great company responsible for both. All I have to do is enjoy the backyard and hot tub.
Also, because my shirts look worse after I iron them than before, I take them to the cleaners for professional care.
Yes, all of these services cost money. But they give me back my time, which is far more valuable than the minimal monthly expense – especially in the long run.
8. HIRE A PROPERTY MANAGER
I own a few investment properties which constantly demand something be done or fixed. My solution was to hire a property manager; they handle all of the day-to-day issues and only call me to get my okay on purchases like a new light fixture or appliance.
The time saved has made my income properties even more valuable to me.
9. LOSE THE PESKY LITTLE EXPENSES
Everyone has those pesky monthly banking or credit charges that they never get around to stopping. You know, subscriptions that seemed like a good idea at the time, for things you never end up using.
My solution here is radical but I promise it works.
I called Visa, canceled my card, and asked for a new card. This caused an immediate stop to all pre-authorized credit card charges, like Apple Music, Audible, Globe and Mail, and several industry journals that I subscribed to but never read.
Not only did I save more than $200 per month but I got rid of the annoyance. I’m also no longer overwhelmed by choice or distracted because I’ve stuck to just the streaming, music, and news services I actually use. The downside to this approach is that you must also restart all the legitimate charges, which can be time-consuming.
TAKE A BIT OF TIME NOW – AND SAVE ENDLESS HOURS LATER
By really taking the time now, and with a little help from my kids, I was able to put all nine of those action plans into place in just a few weeks. And it was one of the best investments of time I’ve ever made. Now I can focus on my own unique ability while streamlining some chores and delegating others. Mary would be proud of me.
Any of these tips are sure to help you downsize your busy lives. If you need further help to simplify your personal finances, please give me a call or send me an email and we can begin working on giving you back your personal time while controlling your finances.
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