At the risk of beating all possible interest out of the concept of planning one’s financial year in advance, I thought I would take one more swipe at it. Probably more for my benefit than anyone else’s.

By knowing what I need to shell out in a given year, I can figure out how to handle each pay cheque. And - here’s the best part - if I manage to hit the plan every second week when I’m paid, I don’t need to worry about my annual car insurance bill, and my son’s extra-curricular sports bills, etc.

So, I get paid every second Friday. A bi-weekly pay cheque means that for two months every year, I will get a third cheque that month. I should be able to save $800 from each of those cheques. Already, that’s $1,600 set aside. That covers car insurance and my lad’s soccer fees.

If I can make the supreme effort of also saving a “mere” hundred bucks from each of the other 24 pay cheques, …well you can do the math on that one.

Suddenly, I’m looking at $3,800 set aside. Not only are the big bills covered, but there should be a little extra for those unpleasant surprises or maybe a treat or two.

So, that is the financial plan for the year. Let’s see how well I do.
It will likely mean taking lunch to work a little more often, but that wouldn’t hurt the waist-line either.