Trick Yourself

LISTEN TO INCREASE - TRICK YOURSELF

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Happy Thanksgiving week to you and your family! This is the time of year when we notice how full our homes feel, how full our tables feel… so it’s a great week to take a look at how full our financial tanks feel as well!

If your financial fuel tank is a little emptier than you’d like it this time of year, take heart. We have been working on the 8 marks that, when achieved in succession, create a full financial tank.

Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve already covered Step 1: Spending less than you make. Step 2: Giving 10%—which properly adjusts our mindset for the remaining 90% of our budget. And today we’re moving to Step 3 on the Fuel Gauge: establishing something I call your New Zero in your checking account.

I still remember the feeling Lauren and I used to have early in our marriage. We were finally doing it right—we were spending less than we made (most of the time), we were tracking our spending and were on the same page. But every single month, there was a sense of anxiety as bills started automatically pulling out. Would the money be there? Would the electric bill or the mortgage hit before the paycheck? Would we dip under? Would we overdraft?

Maybe you’ve felt that too. That constant low grade anxiety that hums under the surface even when you’re “doing everything right.”

So what did I do? I tried what most people try. I threw an extra little cushion in the checking account. Just a couple hundred here, a few hundred there. And here’s the problem I ran into—and maybe you can relate: once that cushion was in there, I forgot it was a cushion.

I’d walk through a store, see something I didn’t plan on buying, and think, “Well… I’ve got the money.” And sure enough, before long, the cushion would shrink. Then disappear. And I’d be right back to stressing over the timing of bills.

And one day I realized: this isn’t a budgeting issue… this is a clarity issue. I needed to know exactly how much money in that account was truly available—and how much wasn’t.

So I tricked myself.

I saved up one full month of our living expenses—at the time it was about $3,000—and I told myself, “When my checking account hits this number, I’m broke.” That $3,000 became what I called my New Zero.

Now, mentally, when I saw that number, it didn’t look like money I could spend anymore. It looked like zero. It looked like the bottom of the tank. And once I hit it, the spending stopped. The bank was closed. The extra shirt or snack could wait. Takeout could wait. That New Zero served as a guardrail, and it brought peace into my finances that I had never felt before.

Even now, years later, Lauren and I still have a New Zero. The amount has changed—our expenses have gone up—but the principle hasn’t. Every couple months I review it, round up to the nearest thousand, and adjust if needed.

So as we enter this consumeristic season, let’s create a NEW ZERO so you don’t ever see an actual Zero in your checking account.

How much do you spend on average each month? Remember, it needs to be less than you make! And then round that number up. That number is now your New Zero target. It’s time to establish it and begin saving to fund it.

And give yourself the gift of never seeing a real zero in your checking account again once you have your fully funded New Zero.

Your future self—and your stress level—will thank you.

To get caught up on past articles, visit www.trumbleagency.com/increase where a complete library of all of the articles can be found.

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Zach Santmier is the owner of Trumble Agency, Inc. and the author of the personal financial course, Increase. He focuses on helping families escape paycheck to paycheck living so they can freely pursue their ideal future.