Automating your finances assumes that you get paid consistently or that you will always have enough money in your account to compensate. We currently have neither.
Knowing your average expenses is essential to everything. If you don’t know how much to tend to spend monthly, you cannot plan for anything.
Looking at early expenses also lets you include those quarterly, bi-yearly, and yearly expenses that you don’t always think of every month.
Since your paychecks are all over the place, you need to know exactly how much you need and when you need it to avoid the dreaded overdraft.
This is the closest we get to automating. Since we cannot plan for a paycheck every other week, you take of everything when you do have the money. That means you pay your mortgage out one-three months.
The emergency will be your closest and dearest friend. In the months where you have no paycheck, this fund keeps you afloat, and you don’t have to worry.
If you are looking at your goals yearly, then you can plan and project based on how much you made last year. You can make the yearly goals of maxing out for IRA ($6000), maxing out your 401K (if it’s an option), and putting X amount into investments.