April 15th, 2024 paycheck

• Liabilities (hold)
  • current: 0.09
  • min: 0
  • max: 1
• Short-term assets (hold)
  • current: 3.7
  • min: 3
  • max: 9
• Low correlation (hold)
  • current: 0.3
  • min: 0
  • max: 1
• Negative correlation (hold)
  • current: 0.3
  • min: 0
  • max: 1
• Growth - US equities - small (hold)
  • current: 50.2
  • min: 40
  • max: 60
• Growth - US equities - mid (decrease)
  • current: 20.9
  • min: 7
  • max: 11
• Growth - US equities - large (increase)
  • current: 24
  • min: 28
  • max: 42

I feel like March messed me all up from a rhythm perspective. I mean, it’s weird to sound like I’m pushing blame onto a calendar. So, maybe it’s more accurate to say:

1. I did a lot of pre-work to set myself up for success regarding book release things before heading out of town.
2. I maintained the necessary rhythm while out of town.
3. Then it seems like I fell off the wagon.

Let’s start with investing things. Followed by account changes. Then we’ll talk book release and business things. And wrap-up with feeling scattered and what I’m doing to get that sorted.

The markets have been dipping the last couple of weeks, so I went ahead and purchased the small-cap value ETF in my tax-advantaged accounts.

I didn’t bother with limit orders because there wasn’t a lot of cash there to begin with. I also didn’t do it in my regular brokerage account because I might need to transfer that cash to pay bills.

I’m still planning on closing my M1 account by the end of the year. Hopefully, the values will be going better again by then.

I had an incident today, and the system responded as designed. That said, I’d like to minimize the potential for incidents in the future. Therefore, I’m planning a couple of changes:

1. Reorder how the accounts appear in the credit union’s mobile app
2. Close one of my accounts at my primary credit union.
3. Develop my own bookkeeping software.

Here’s my current list of accounts, and their purpose:

• Income: All money received from third-parties starts here.
• Taxes: A percentage of money received in the Income account goes here, just in case.
  • Operating Expenses: Most outflows to the parties comes from here.
  • Primary Care: My primary care physician doesn’t accept credit cards, and payments to him come from here.
  • Investing Pass-through: Connected to brokers to facilitate deposits and withdrawals to and from those accounts.
• Runway: Prepare for future expenses.
• Profit: Prepare for annual Roth IRA contribution.
• Savings: Keep the account at the credit union open.
• Credit card: I pay most bills automatically with credit cards.
• Overdraft: Line of credit that will advance if any the checking accounts would go negative.

When I sign into the mobile app I want to be able to get an idea of where I stand financially. Having the Income account at the top helps when I have a steady stream of income. So, it stays at the top.

From a transfer perspective, the very next thing I do is put some money in the Tax account. This goes against the advice to save first, and that’s okay.

The next three accounts are outflow accounts.

I like to see Operating Expenses because it tells me when things are off. I maintain a regular balance of 500 USD, if there’s more, either bills haven’t processed or I forgot to pay; otherwise, if it’s less, I probably didn’t transfer money.

The rationale behind the Primary Care and Investing pass-through accounts is that I try and minimize how many providers have access to withdrawal cash. The former is for my Direct Primary Care Physician and the latter is for brokers.

The next three are dividend bearing accounts. This is where I’m planning to consolidate.

I can’t close the Savings because credit unions usually require a savings account. Further, they usually offer a higher interest on a balance up to a certain point.

That leaves the Runway and Profit accounts. They’re both money market accounts. And I plan to close one of them, as their purposes aren’t fundamentally different. Put money here for known future withdrawals.

This brings us to me developing my own accounting solution.

I’ve been using Wave for a while and was really appreciating it. Unfortunately, I’m starting to notice some shifts that have me considering alternatives. I still do recommend considering them as a solution and alternative to some of the others available.

Having said that, given it seems like I shift accounting platforms every five years, I’d like to try something different. Further, I’ve added bookkeeping services to Mastering the Mundane, and as I’m improving my understanding there, I’m finding Wave to be less satisfying for how my brain wants to work.

We’re wrapping up Time: Mastering the Mundane. All the Parts and Chapters are written. I’m typesetting the print edition, and preparing to record audio.

This last leg is falling behind the initial schedule, which is fine and normal. For the next book I’m planning to make some changes and I’m learning more about the tools I use.

My world is a realm of possibilities. It’s a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, there are always things I could do. On the other hand, choosing one to focus on can be difficult.

I was starting to feel like there was too much the other day.

But, we went back to the prioritization construct I’ve been playing with:

1. External financial
2. External non-financial
3. Internal financial
4. Internal non-financial

In other words:

1. Things people are paying for
2. Things people say they like or would pay for
3. Things we’re willing to pay for
4. Things we’d like to explore doing

I have a pretty good bead on things now, I think. And I’m feeling less scattered. Of course, that also means I need to start putting in the work.

So, here we go!

• April 1st, 2024 paycheck
• May 1st, 2024 paycheck