I
used to wait until a bill’s final due date before paying that bill. Whenever I received bills in the mail,
I would open them to look at the balance and due date, then set the bill aside
to pay later.
I
remember a time when paying bills used to always stress me out. Not paying my bills immediately led to several issues and
big headaches:
- Sometimes my utility / cell phone / credit card company would receive a late payment and would stick me with a late fee.
- Sometimes I would forget to pay a bill. Then I’d stress out trying to get the payment in last minute: whether it was rushing out to the post office to drop off a bill, or calling my credit card company to pay a bill over the phone. If the bill didn’t get paid on time, I’d get stuck with a late fee or increase in interest rate.
- Whenever I got my paycheck, I would think that I had tons of extra spending money. I would buy the things that I wanted first. I couldn't wait until I received a paycheck so I could go out and spend, spend spend. Then later in the month, I found myself scrambling to find a way to pay my statement balances as the due dates approached.
