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.

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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.

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