I Will Teach You To Be Rich: No guilt, no excuses - just a 6-week programme that works

by Ramit Sethi

1st of the month: Part of your salary is automatically sent to your pension. The remainder (your take-home pay) is direct-deposited into your current account. Even though you’re paid on the last day of the month, the money may not show up in your account until the next day, so be sure to account for that. Remember, you’re treating your current account like your email inbox – first, everything goes there, then it’s filtered away to the appropriate place. Note: the first time you set this up, leave a buffer sum of money – I recommend £500 – in your current account just in case a transfer fails. You can “cash out” that buffer after a couple of months. And don’t worry: if something does go wrong, use the negotiation tips on page 85 to get any overdraft fees waived. 5th of the month: Automatic transfer to your savings account. Log in to your savings account and set up an automatic transfer from your current account to your savings account on the fifth of every month. Waiting until the fifth of the month gives you some leeway. If, for some reason, your salary doesn’t show up on the first of the month, you’ll have four days to correct things or cancel that month’s automatic transfer. Don’t just set up the transfer. Remember to set the amount too. (To calculate the amount, use the percentage of your monthly income that you established for savings in your Conscious Spending Plan – typically 5% to 10%.) But if you can’t afford that much right now, don’t worry – just set up an automa...