Please share your tips below for “Pay Yourself First.”
Have you heard the advice “Pay Yourself First”? What does that mean and how do you do it with Tiller?
I’ve seen this phrase a lot, and it’s an idea that can make a huge difference.
It just means you treat your savings like it’s your most important bill. Instead of paying all your bills and buying stuff, and then just saving whatever is left over at the end of the month, you flip it.
Savings is Your First Bill
Right when you get paid, the very first “bill” you pay is to yourself, by moving money into your savings or investment accounts. Then you just live on what’s left.
Tiller Workflow
Here’s a workflow for how you can build this right into your Tiller sheet, especially if you’re using the Foundation Template.
Setup an Automatic Transfer
First thing, you have to do the bank part. You need to log into your bank’s website and set up a recurring, automatic transfer. Have it move the money from your checking account to your savings account.
The best way to do this is to schedule it for the day right after your paycheck usually hits. This way the money is just gone before you even get used to seeing it.
Savings Category in Tiller
You need to go to your Categories tab. Add a category row by typing a new category at the bottom. You can call it whatever you want, like “Savings Transfer” or “My Savings Goal”.
The most important part is the Type column. You want to set this to “Transfer”. This is key, because it’s not an “Expense”. The money isn’t leaving your life, it’s just moving from one of your accounts to another. If you set it as an “Expense”, your budget dashboard will be wrong and look like you “spent” that money.
Next, stay on that Categories tab. Find your new “Savings Transfer” row and go to the Budget column for the current month. Type in the exact amount of your automatic transfer. So if you set up a $500 transfer, put $500 in this budget column.
Now you’ve told Tiller to expect that $500 move.
Setup AutoCat
Last step is making it automatic. Use the Tiller sidebar to setup a new AutoCat rule.
You’re going to make a new rule. Look at your Transactions sheet first to see what your bank calls this transfer. It might say something like “ONLINE TRANSFER TO SAVINGS ACCT”.
In your AutoCat rule, put a unique part of that description in the Description column. Maybe just “TRANSFER TO SAVINGS” is enough. Then, in the Category column for that rule, pick the “Savings Transfer” category you just made.
So now, here is what happens.
- Your bank automatically transfers the $500.
- Tiller pulls in that transaction.
- AutoCat sees the description, and automatically tags it as “Savings Transfer” for you. You don’t have to do anything.
This is the part that makes it all work. Your main “Available to Spend” number on the budget dashboard just went down by that $500. The money for your savings goal is already “spent” according to your plan.
It means you don’t have to do any mental math, like “okay I have $1500, but I need to remember not to spend $500 of that”. You can just look at your budget and trust the “Available” number.
Hope this guide helps. Is this how you all are doing it? Curious if anyone has a different or better setup.
-Alice
Tiller Evangelist