This is my journey to apply the book, Unf*ck your finances. The book is about personal finances but I’ve added actions specific to working for myself.

If you want a bit more context, the prelude pieces are Hope can be scary, Why do we never talk about personal finance?, and Getting my shit together: the plan for the next quarter.

The first thing I’m doing from the plan I made two days ago is to understand how I’m spending. This means listing out all of my fixed costs and interrogating them.

Yesterday, I reduced by monthly costs by $189.95. Let’s see how I go today.

Feel free to do a cross-examination.

This services saves me hours of keying receipts. Keeping it.

This includes the service as well as insurance on the phone. Keeping it. I’m not even going to shop around because I know it’s an awesome deal.

This gives me access to great graphic templates. I needed one this month. I’ve added it to my calendar to cancel it before the next payment comes out. I can always resubscribe if I need another template

A  community that I’m a part of. This gives me access to a monthly goals accountability crew and a co-working space in the CBD one day per month. I use the space for meeting rooms and get access to mentorship and the full network of people.

A community that I’m part of. This is a high-end membership fee and my hope is that it’s full of people a few years or decades ahead of me. I need to make the most of this. I’ve opened the getting started guide in another tab.

Another community I’m a part of. This community is full of people who do similar work to me. It’s nice to not feel alone.I’ll take the time to go through the repository of documents and resources that it comes with.

Fixed.

Fixed.

Fixed.

This membership allows me to contribute to public challenges. I also get to support a company that I think should exist. Keeping it. For now.

Most of my files are here. I would switch to iCloud but I don’t want to lock myself into an ecosystem. Keeping it.

This gets daily use. Keeping it.

This is my CRM and it is a dream to send quotes with because they can sign the contract electronically, set up their payment plan, and receive the first invoice…all without me touching it. I haven’t tried invoicing yet but it saves me a decent amount of brain space so I’m keeping it.

 — 

I reduced my monthly costs by $53!

If you want a bit more context, the prelude pieces are Hope can be scary, Why do we never talk about personal finance?, and Getting my shit together: the plan for the next quarter.

The first thing I’m doing from the plan I made yesterday is to understand how I’m spending. This means listing out all of my fixed costs and interrogating them.

I already had them all listed out on a spreadsheet. 

Now, I interrogate them.

Feel free to do a cross-examination.

(Added later: I’ve removed the dollar figures from the individual line items but the total that I cut was $189.95/mth with an additional $35.20/mth coming off in the next month. And this was only 13 of the 69 fixed costs that I have — I still have 56 more to interrogate!)

This is for public transport.

Yes, this is fixed. I could reduce it by walking everywhere. I could drop some good money on a bike, an ebike, a scooter or an electric scooter, but this currently suits my needs.

I could get rid of this if I had to. But the influence it has on my wellbeing is so significant that it probably adds more to my life than takes away.

This is for a permanent desk at a coworking space. I’m going to email them now and switch to a casual desk. Sent. That took longer than it should have.

This is made up of:

I’m leaving this as it is for now. I may consider reducing the community to the lower tier in future. I may consider leaving the training program in future.

I’ve really got to migrate this to the other website builder (unlimited domains!) before the next monthly payment comes out.

This is for two email addresses: *@rosieo.co and *@rosieodsey.com

I’m cool with it.

This reflects my share of this. We leased them because we wanted the option to move overseas. I think it’s truly fixed.

This can be cancelled this month because I’m switching to a CRM and Xero

Yeah this can’t be cancelled without being negligent.

I use it regularly enough to warrant having this. Until I have someone who does this for me, I’ll need this tool.

This is often a business expense. I currently have 25 unfinished audiobooks on my phone. Wait a sec

That has now been cancelled. I’ll resubscribe when I need something else. At least this way there’s an additional barrier.

This show changed my life. I will continue to support it in this way. I also truly believe in the model of directly supporting stuff like this because people make better stuff when they’re not chasing sponsorship.

I’m participating actively in the community. I will consider leaving in future.

This is my journey to apply the book, Unf*ck your finances. The book is about personal finances but I’ve added actions specific to working for myself.

If you want a bit more context, the prelude pieces are Hope can be scary, Why do we never talk about personal finance?, and Getting my shit together: the plan for the next quarter.

The final item from the plan I made two days ago was to re-read a handful of chapters and figure out any action items.

Why is this an action item? Because I looked at the chapter titles and had no memory of what was in them. It was clear that I hadn’t taken any action on them.

I skimmed through each of the chapters. Each heading below is a chapter. I’ve included notes and new action items (bulleted).

I haven’t set due dates for these but I have added them to my keystone doc so that I’ll see them regularly.

This chapter is about becoming aware of what I’m contributing to when I spend, invest, and borrow.

Ok, so this is about setting rules and boundaries. Check check.

This was specific advice about seeing a financial counsellor. Done.

This happens over a few different frequencies.

Daily, use a tracking app.

Weekly, look at the action plan, see if you’re on track, check your spending, making sure you have enough in each account

Monthly, check progress against the milestones in the 90-day plan

Quarterly, celebrate or figure out what went wrong. Set the next 90-day plan

Annually, go through the whole process again

This is my journey to apply the book, Unf*ck your finances. The book is about personal finances but I’ve added actions specific to working for myself.

If you want a bit more context, the prelude pieces are Hope can be scary, Why do we never talk about personal finance?, and Actually finishing a book: the application.

Today, I moved forward on the first few action items:

Here’s what I moved forward.

I transcribed these and added them to my keystone document. These one-off things can be super valuable. What’s amazing is that they end up tucked away and out of use because I don’t keep them somewhere that I see often. Not this time!

Ok here are the plans for July, August, and September (numbers redacted)

To pay off my credit card debt by end 2019, I will:

To set up a ready-for-anything fund (so that I’m never without options), I will:

To get the system set up and running smoothly, I will:

To make this happen, I need to hit my July revenue goal and keep outgoings below the defined threshold.

To pay off my credit card debt by end 2019, I will:

To get the ready-for-anything fund to where I want it to be (so that I’m never without options) by end April 2020, I will:

To make this happen, I need to hit my August revenue goal and keep outgoings below the defined threshold.

To pay off my credit card debt by end 2019, I will:

To get the ready-for-anything fund to where I want it to be (so that I’m never without options) by end April 2020, I will:

To make this happen, I need to hit my September revenue goal and keep outgoings below the defined threshold.

 — 

I finished reading Unf*ck your finances a few weeks ago. I let books sit for a while before I go back through them to pull quotes and re-read my marginalia.

I’ve realised that I didn’t finish the process.

Here’s the overview and what I actually actioned:

Do a financial detox.

Understand how you think and feel.

Understand your values.

Work out your goals.

It’s all downhill from here.

Work out a plan.

Understand how you’re spending.

Start to become a conscious consumer.

Remove yourself from temptation.

Seek help.

Consistently monitor, gauge adjust and track.

Integrate, archive, or throw out the reflective exercises.

I’ll re-evaluate the 30 day financial detox at end June.

Work out the how of the plan

Re-read these chapters and figure out action items:

I’ll be talking about this for the next few days. Feel free to follow along.

I discovered 200 words a day through the Product Hunt Makers Festival.

The first time I tried it, I was in a cafe on the Gold Coast. I had sat down to afternoon tea before a workshop and I had some spare time.

I wrote 200 words about why wearing white is risky.

It took a month and a half for me to return on 6 March 2019.

Since that day, I have broken the streak only once.

I got back on the horse the next day. It was a bit of a mental battle.

For me, writing daily is about keeping the tap on. I find that tap difficult to turn on. Maybe 18 months ago, I worked hard to turn it on. Now that it’s on, I work to keep it on.

I’m lucky to be something of a working writer. I write content, strategy, and copy for a living. I get to make things.

I don’t think I could sustain that work without this beautiful supportive community. There is inherent emotional risk with putting out creative work for a living. The good enough question comes up. Imposter syndrome lurks. The fraud police alerts come up on your radar.

And my answer is to just keep writing.

Just keep writing.

Yep.

Gretchen Rubin tells a story around this quote. It never resonated with me because it centres on her children. At least that’s what I thought. It may also be that you don’t have that sort of perception of time in your late twenties (which is where I am).

But I can try to empathise.

Days feel long.

Days feel significant.

In a day, I can find my limits.

When I look back on years, very few things stand out:

the relationship that was

graduation

changing jobs

relocations

a first kiss.

The days were long but the years were short.

In the blink of an eye (or so it seems), I transformed my livelihood, I changed my appearance, and I shifted my relationships.

I have a tendency to try to squeeze every last drop out of the day.

I’ve done this in the last few days.

rushing through routines

diving into work

replying to messages as an afterthought

brushing away conversation because I’m busy

heading to bed completely wired.

The days were long.

Even if I won one of those days, I wouldn’t have appreciated it. The cost was so high that I can’t appreciate it in hindsight.

The best days have margin.

The significant moments will happen anyway.

Making sure I actually live in them when they do is worth more than to finish a mountain of minutiae.

 — from Sunrise, Sunset in Fiddler on the Roof

When we struggle, when it gets hard…

It’s important to look at the situation with objectivity and figure out what the struggle is for.

Are we growing?

Is there something great on the other side?

If we succeed, will we be proud of it and happy about it?

It’s a dip. Push through.

Are we trying the same thing and expecting a different result?

Even if we get good at the current grind, is it yet more struggle on the other side?

If we succeed, will we feel the same as we do now?

It’s a dead end. Get out of there.

I’m recommending Seth Godin’s The Dip. It’s a 90 minute audio book and it’s well worth listening to.

Oh, a caveat if you do have a listen:

— Richard Pachter reviews The Dip in the Miami Herald (2007)

I usually do my writing first thing in the morning. I give my best brain to the act of creation.

This morning, I created for others.

So now it is 7:45pm and I am at my desk completing my morning ritual (I call it my win the day routine. I don’t feel like I’m winning.)

Last night, I slept much less than I should have. It was the right trade off last night. I could have avoided having to trade it off by being more prepared earlier in the week. A lesson learned.

It takes a lot of effort to extricate yourself from an endless scroll. Same for a nice-to-have item on the routine and from the grab of just-one-more things. It takes even more effort when you’re tired and hungry.

Again, I marvel that I operated in this state for so many years. This is temporary. Thank goodness. I will sleep well tonight and wake later than usual tomorrow morning.

Things I need to remember:

Buy eggs on the way home

Eat dinner on the way home

Wash my mug before I leave

Pack that book

Throw out that packet

I need to go to the bathroom

I wonder if I’d be better in BD

Why are there so many people still here?

I think I’m sleepy