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Simple Money Ideas for a Balanced Life

by Neal Frankle, CFP ®, The article represents the author's opinion. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.

photo by Spendtrails, Flikr

Are you looking for simple money ideas in order to have more balance in your life – and more cash in your checking account? If so, I have a very counterintuitive idea.

Unautomate it.

I know this idea may surprise you. After all, automation is supposed to be a good thing, right?

You set it and forget it. Automation saves lots of time and lots of money. What could be less complicated than that? How could having less automation give you more money and a more balanced life? This is especially important if you are in business for yourself.

Well, I’ll admit that I value automation. In fact, if it were not for the ability to automate a variety of functions, I would not have been able to build my business. When you put some tasks on automatic, you know they’re going to get done and (if your systems are set up correctly) get done right.

So how could anyone have an issue with automation? That’s where Adam Baker comes in.

He thinks we have gone too far in automating our lives and he’s written an e-book about it. Even though I love automation, I’d like you to consider purchasing this e-book for a few reasons. Before I go into this in detail, I must disclose that Adam is one of my core blogging buddies and somebody I really care about. Also, I have affiliated with Adam on this e-book. That means if you buy a copy, he’ll throw some shekels my way.

Having said that, I’m going to do my “Pilgrimest” to keep this somewhat objective.

So why do I think “Unautomate Your Life” offers you good, simple ideas for a balanced life and more money?

1. Lessons Learned

Adam’s main thesis is that by automating much of our (financial) life, we lose touch with it. We’re not mindful about our spending and as a result, our energies and resources aren’t maximized. This argument makes a lot of sense to me, and I’ll give you an example.

I used to have a person in my office take care of all my bookkeeping, but I took back responsibility for that task about a year ago. When I did, I was floored.

I soon realized how much money I was spending mindlessly. It helped me learn how to stop spending money. And this is coming from a person you wouldn’t normally characterize as a spendthrift – just ask my wife and kids.

Was it nicer when I didn’t have to do this task myself? Yes.

Do I like going through every single expense? Not really.

But is the unautomation worth the time? Absofreakinlutely!

You might come to the same conclusion by reading Adam’s e-book.

Adam takes readers through the steps of identifying what’s important and then shows them how to get it – immediately. One step is being mindful of how we spend our time and money. By unautomating, you do just that.

2. The Writing

Adam is a master wordcrafter. (He rarely uses words like “absofreakinlutely.”) I love reading anything he puts out. When I went through his e-book, I heard a clear voice and personality. He’s passionate about this e-book and the message, and you can’t help but pick up on that.

In fact, there was one exercise that especially got my attention. In it, Adam asks readers to describe what they want their lives to look like right now. Not 10 years from now…today. Then, he walks us through the steps to achieve it.

I’ve seen plenty of exercises on imagining our lives in the future, but I’ve never seen anything so direct and useful.

Is this e-book for everyone?

I don’t know.

I know my kids will enjoy it, as will my wife, but I don’t know about you. If you are happy and content and feel that you live life to the fullest, you probably don’t need this e-book.

If, on the other hand, your life isn’t running the way you want it to, this might be the ticket that gets you back on track.

If so, you can grab your copy here.

Do you think that unautomating your life is a good, simple idea for a balanced life? Or do you think that you need to automate more of your life to simplify?

 

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Comments

  1. Stay at Home Mom CFO says

    March 16, 2010 at 4:05 PM

    No freaking way, I think you read my mind! I just spent a crazy past couple of days of stress and troubles because of “automating my financial life”. I’m out of the automation game now. And I think it would do me good to touch real actual money sometimes too! I swipe dang debit card everywhere and lose sight that it’s MONEY and not a credits and debits game.

  2. Monevator says

    March 12, 2010 at 1:26 AM

    Hmm, maybe I should go check out Adam’s book – I could use the affiliate income, but more importantly this is exactly how I run my life.

    I do recommend people automate at least their savings (pay yourself first etc) but as a financial junkie I don’t do t (I pay myself as often as I can!)

    Nor do I budget etc. I think it make something dull, duller. And I’ve never been in debt in my life, or even overdrawn.

    So I certainly could buy Adam’s central premise.

    Too many people hope to put money out of their minds. That doesn’t work well, whether you go the automatic or unautomatic route.

    • Neal@Wealth Pilgrim says

      March 12, 2010 at 1:37 PM

      Thanks M,

      I’m of the mind that once I reach my savings goals, I don’t care how much I spend. That’s a very easy way to budget — and it is an extension of the “pay yourself first”
      idea. I think it’s great because it just shuts down excuses or arguments.

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Who is Neal Frankle

Neal Frankle

I'm a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional with more than 25 years of experience. I feel very blessed and hope to share my personal financial experience and professional wisdom with readers of WealthPilgrim.
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