Make a Bills Calendar to See What Owns You

In Fight Club, Tyler Durden famously said that “the things you own end up owning you.” I have written about how hard you have to work for your possessions once before, but I decided to take it a step further and find out how much time I have to work every month to pay bills.

It turns out that I spend nearly 75% of my time at work for recurring bills, including rent, student loans, and utilities. That means only about ten hours every week are for the things I like to do, such as eating and entertainment.

You can also build a calendar like this. I have put together a free spreadsheet on Google Docs to help you figure out how much of your paycheck goes to fixed bills. From that spreadsheet, I created a second Google Calendar that I used to input the work days per month. It turns out that my biggest fixed expenses are taxes, rent, and student loan payments.

This was an eye opening exercise. Take a run through and let me know how it goes in the comments.