I forgot to brush my teeth today, can you believe that? It’s something I do twice a day going on 25+ years now, and yet this morning I forget to brush them. I couldn’t tell you why either, all I know is that it sucks. In fact, it makes me wonder how many other times I may have forgotten! And of course, this naturally reminded me of finance ;)

Forgetting to brush your teeth is like forgetting to pay your electric or credit card bill. You deal with them time and time again, but every now and then you simply forget! It doesn’t matter how organized or pimp you are, it just happens and you suck it up. The difference being, when you forget to brush your teeth you’re left with only stinky breath. When you forget to pay your BILLS, you’re left with a stinky late payment charge as well as a stinky kick in the pants. Personally, I prefer the bad breath.

What can a busy person do about this? Automate!

It won’t help you in the teeth department, but automating your finances is one of the best (and easiest) ways to stay on track. Methods like auto bill pay, auto deposit, auto reminders, or even just ghetto ones in your Outlook or on your iPhone – it all helps. If you’re REALLY good, you can automate almost 99% of your financial life! Check out how my girl Jenny Blake does it over at Life After College.

Talk about a game plan! She sets it all up ONCE and then she’s good. It’s just a matter of checking in every now and then and making sure everything’s kosher. The more you can automate this stuff, the less likely you’re going to forget something – and it also helps with big savings accruals over time! If you’re still not convinced, try flipping through the The Automatic Millionaire and see what that does for you. It was CRAZY good in getting me off my a$$.

Now if you excuse me, I’ve gotta get on over to CVS and find me some toothpaste! One day the internets will be able to do that for me too ;)