My loan payment hit the same week as a bunch of other expenses and I realized I didn’t actually have a plan for how to handle it. I just kind of reacted which felt stressful
How do you plan around overlapping expenses like loans and bills
byu/Comfortable_Box_4527 inStudentLoans
Posted by Comfortable_Box_4527
9 Comments
From what people say it basically just makes your upcoming obligations easier to see at a glance.
It will hopefully get easier in time as your salary increases and you build a buffer in your savings. I remember having to be very careful about the order bills were paid the first couple of years out of college though. I made sure to use autopay for federal loans to get the discount, but for other bills, I paid them manually so that I could space them out. Whenever possible, I paid the larger bills early so that there was flexibility the next month. A monthly checklist of your bills will be very helpful to not accidentally miss one and have to pay penalties, and if you don’t already have a written monthly budget, you absolutely need to do that, otherwise none of this will matter. Good luck, and know that it will get easier with time.
Budget. Make a budget at the beginning of every month. Make sure every expense is accounted for. Know where every penny is going to go, including what you are going to spend on leisure and fun activities. Don’t spend anything you don’t have in your budget. Don’t spend a single penny without logging the transaction.
You can request a due date change.
Aside from that, depending on your pay schedule you can save up from check to check instead of having all of your bills covered with one.
I get paid every 2 weeks on Friday, and my spouse gets paid every Friday. We don’t share finances, but we make sure our respective bills reflect our ability to pay (including timing).
Timing issues like that usually expose where systems aren’t really built for forward looking decisions. Most people only notice it after they’ve run into it a few times. Simplifi often comes up in that context
They gonna sit like they did before covid lol
not buying stuff for months I want for months and strict budgeting.
So it helps with planning ahead.
Budget.
Several apps can help with this. My favorite was the old Mint app that Intuit bought and then retired. Trying Rocket Money now but it is struggling.
I found just like with meal tracking and calories, these apps can really help you understand where your money is going and naturally help you curtail unnecessary spending