How Can I Stop Feeling Anxious About My Bills?

You open your bank app and your chest just immediately tightens. Bills are everywhere. Different dates, different logins, even different amounts. And your brain never gets to rest.So on today's show, we're going to talk about what do you do next to get organized and feel steady again and do it without shame. Hey, friend, Ralph Estep Jr. Here.This is Financially Confident Christian where every day we work to break that cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence. And today's topic is a great one. We're going to talk today about a bill paying you can actually stick to why. So the anxiety stops running your days.Well, let's get right to today's question. And I just love this question, Ralph. My bills are all over the place and I'm always playing catch up.My mind is a mess and I'm tired of that anxious feeling every time I open my bank app. How do I set up a bill plan that I can actually stick to? What a great question. And this is a question that I bet most of us can relate to.Unless you're super wealthy, you've probably got bills. And even if you're super wealthy, you probably still have bills.So today on the show, I really want to talk about one simple bill system that brings you back to a place of peace. Because bills can be so disruptive in our lives. Well, let's get right to it. Here's what I'm going to encourage you to do today.Gather every bill into one single list. This doesn't have to be some long drawn out amazing thing. Just 10 minutes. Just set aside 10 minutes and get a piece of paper.And I'm going to walk you through exactly how to do this. Get that piece of paper and just on this paper write the name of the bill, put the due date of the bill, put the minimum of that bill.And this last column is going to be important here in a moment. Put on there how it's paid, whether it's paid by check. Is it automatic? That sort of question. Now here's the catch to this.I want you to include those non monthly ones as well because it's real easy to find the ones that are always monthly. Those are easy to think about. Your mortgage or your rent, your car payment, all those things are the normal monthly ones.But what trips up so many people are those non monthly ones.So think about those things like car tags and registration, maybe insurance, maybe you pay your insurance annually or quarterly or, or, or something along those lines and any of those subscriptions. And when you're doing this at this first end of this, there's no judgment in this, it's just information. So create that list again. That's the bill.Name the due date, the minimum and how it's paid. And don't forget to include those non monthly ones as well. Now once you've built that list, we're going to move on to the second step here.What I want you to do is choose one bill day rhythm. Now I am a believer that you should pick one day a week. Now if you're paid bi weekly, maybe you do that every other week.You want to sort of match this up where the money's coming in and where the money is going out. So if you're paid biweekly, split those into two things. You can do what I call paycheck A and paycheck B.And if you do paycheck A and paycheck B, what you're going to do by doing it this way is you're going to align your payments up with when your money is coming in the door. Because here's the thing, it trips up so many people. If your income is uneven, it's complicated to try to make those bill payments too.I, I'll talk about this later probably on the show. I remember at one point I was paid once a month. Talking about trying to budget for that, that was a challenge.But then put those dates for those bill check ins right on your calendar. Make those non negotiable reminders. Now here's a big pro tip. One things that I recommend for a lot of people that I work with.Create a bills only account or maybe go back to a bills envelope and you might be thinking to yourself, Ralph, an envelope system. Yeah, my grandparents used to use this, but it worked for them because they would set up those envelopes. I never forget it.My grandmother, at the beginning of the month, now this is when they retired, they would have a certain money coming in from their pensions and Social Security. And my grandmother had these envelopes and I can remember her and my grandfather sitting at the kitchen table and she would say, okay.His name was Frank, but they all called him Bud. I'm not sure why, but she would say, okay, Bud, here's what we got. And my grandfather liked to fish. So he had an envelope for fishing.And then my grandmother had one for the utilities and for all those sort of things. Now we used to go and visit them in the summer. They didn't live too close to us, so I always noticed and we were there.There was always an extra envelope, what she called the Entertainment envelope. But you can do the same thing by setting up a separate checking account or maybe even put up one budget app and call it bills only.And then what I'm going to encourage you to do is each payday, move the bill amount there first so that you've got some reassurance, you know, that you've got those things separated. Because what ends up happening is if you don't separate these things, you start having this competition for other things in your budget.But if you set that money aside at the beginning, guess what? It's set aside. Your bills are going to be paid. Here's another pro tip. I recommend. Put your bills on autopay, but be careful.Don't do this until you control the timing. Some people have heard me talk about this before. They rushed out and they put those things on autopay, but they hadn't really set up the timing.And then what happened is all of their bills were hitting on the same day of the month. Well, that's a challenge if you're paid in too big cycles or maybe you're paid weekly.I honestly think in my experience, being paid weekly is a difficult way to budget because you don't get enough to cover all the bills in the first week. So you've got to really be good at doing those budgeting things. But I would start there first.I think auto payments are great, but align your due dates to your pay rhythm and if they're not, call the companies. What I have found is if you reach out to the companies, they will talk to you about this. They have a lot of flexibility because guess what?At the end of the day, they want to get paid. Here's another pro tip. Set up auto pay minimums at the very basics so you avoid those late fees.One of the things that I do, and listen, I do this for a living. All of my credit cards have an auto pay set up automatically.Now I'm going to go and pay more than that because I'm actually a believer in paying the full balance if you can afford to do that. But set it up for an auto pay at the very minimum. That way you're never late. And then listen if autopay scares you.And I get it, some people don't like autopay. I've had many people say to me, rob, I don't want anybody in my account. That's fine. Then schedule those payments.If you schedule them, it's the same benefit, but you've got a little more control. And here's the other big takeaway. For today, one of the things you can do here is build a ketchup cushion.Now, this is the kind of ketchup you put on fries. This is the ketchup to make sure that you have a buffer zone, just one small brick at a time.That way, if something pops up and you don't have to start with three or four hundred dollars, start with a hundred dollars or maybe $250, and build up that buffer in that bill's account. And you might be saying, ralph, well, how do I get there? Well, you can add $10 of pay or $25 a pay until you have that one extra bill cycle.That's what we're really working towards. Not 3, 4, 5 cycles, but just one bill cycle. If you've got one bill cycle set aside, you have fewer surprises.And when you've got fewer surprises, guess what? You've got fewer of those panic moments. Because here's my encouragement for you encapsulated in one single thing. Today, you're not behind on this.You're just building a system. So here's today's win, your single step to really make a difference here. Open that note on your phone or get a piece of paper out and do that.Bills master, just like we talked about, the name of the bill, the amount, the minimum, and how it's paid. And right now, today, I just want you to write down five bills again. The name, the due date, the minimum, and how it's paid. That's it.Just start that list, even if it's small today, because I guarantee you one thing, you're going to have more peace tomorrow. Why? As we talk about peace, let's get right into scripture. You know, one of the things on the show I always want to lean into Scripture.And this one comes to us from First Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 33. It says this. For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace. And doesn't that just fit today? See, your bill plan isn't just a money tool.It's a doorway from disorder into peace. And hey, we want to live in peace, right? How about we pray together?Father God, you see the anxiety that hits the moment that bank cap opens up for so many of us. You see the tightness in our chest, the racing thoughts and the fear of being behind again.So, Lord, I just ask that you would bring us peace where there has been disorder. Lord, give us clarity for that next step. Not a perfect plan, Lord, just a faithful plan.Just ask you to help the listeners build a simple system that truly protects what matters.And when shame tries to speak to us, Lord, just ask that you will replace that with your truth because we know you're gentle, you're near to us, and you always lead us with peace. And I ask this in Jesus name. Amen. Let me encourage you. You can breathe again. You're putting peace on the calendar. And right now I want to invite you.If you've got a question for this show. As you can tell, we're really leaning into the questions these days because that's what really fuels the show.If you've got a question, go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/question we'll put that in the show notes. But I'm going to give it to you one more time. It's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/questioni would love to have your questions submitted to the show. So thank you so much for joining me today. Stay financially savvy out there. May God bless you. You have a great day.And don't forget to come back tomorrow and see me again on Financially Confident Christian. God bless you.