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I miss the times developers would optimize their lives without all the online rants and the sensitive encouraging, nodding and enabling of said behavior. That

I miss the times developers would optimize their lives without all the online rants and the sensitive encouraging, nodding and enabling of said behavior. That said, don't you have banks which automatically pay your bills (electricity/gas/water)? Which country are you from?

michaelmior 9y ago
I prefer not to pay my bills automatically because it doesn't take much time and lets me make sure they are correct.
- amigoingtodie 9y ago
  Plus, you can more easily switch banks. Provision and migrate accounts with Ansible?
  - Johnathanb 9y ago
    In the UK the banks take care of switching over your direct debits and standing orders when you switch bank accounts.
  - OJFord 9y ago
    Manually pay bills every month, or whatever period, so that it's easier to switch account? Even if you're switching every year that doesn't sound like a good deal.
- apexalpha 9y ago
  You can still check if they're correct if you do it automatically though. You can just cancel the tranfer.
  - michaelmior 9y ago
    My bank doesn't make that easy for me. Besides, it only takes me a few minutes each month to review and pay bills.
mbrock 9y ago
You probably should stay away from comment threads about personal productivity then?
codeulike 9y ago
I think 'paying bills' here is shorthand for the general administrative burden of being alive, which seems to have grown substantially in recent decades.
- smelterdemon 9y ago
  In what ways has it grown? It seems easier than ever to track and automate personal finance.
  - logfromblammo 9y ago
    For me, "paying bills" is not the literal act of making payments to vendors and creditors. It is the act of exporting one's labor outside the family, in exchange for the medium of exchange required to pay one's bills. I don't "pay my bills" by writing checks and mailing them. I "pay my bills" by working at a corporate peon job for 40 hours a week. If I do the same kind of work at home on a side project, that is still work, but not "bill paying" work. The literal act of paying bills takes me all of five minutes every month. An hour per year, whenever I don't have to add any new payees to the system. I spend more time voiding my bowels, which I always seem to have enough time for, regardless of how much time I spend working. Maybe ancestor post was referring to doing accounts payable and accounts receivable accounting work for the business? Seems like that might be more labor intensive than hitting the "pay" button for the electric bill, even with modern business accounting software. Even then, it wouldn't be something I'd do every day, and if all I felt I could do in the afternoons is light administrative work, I think I'd just knock off early if I didn't have enough to fill at least a solid 2 hours, or if it was the last day of the month.
    - mbrock 9y ago
      I'm the ancestor, and yeah, I do work through my own firm and there are some monthly bills and bookkeeping that's not automatic. I also live overseas and pay my utilities and rent via EU bank transfer.
- mrgill92 9y ago
ensignavenger 9y ago
My bank doesn't know how much my bill is going to be every month, so I have to put the amount in. Fortunately, I use simple.com and paying a bill with their mobile app takes a couple of seconds (once I have entered the companies info). Some companies have decent recurring billing via ACH, and I use that on most of my credit cards (I still check the statements each month), but my electric, water, sewer, and gas companies (all separate where I am) all have absolutely terrible websites (and the electric company just plain sucks generally), so I often find myself just paying those bills manually as they come in (after checking them for accuracy).
- walshemj 9y ago
  You don't have direct debits for this sort of thing ie bill is paid automatically?
  - jorvi 9y ago
    Yeah this amazed me too. Usually gas and electric companies make a yearly estimate based on last year's use, then divide that by 12 months. If the estimate overshot, you get money back, otherwise you have to pay a little extra at the end of a 12 month cycle.
    - ensignavenger 9y ago
      That is an option for most of my utilities, but I haven't set it up. I moved a year ago so it would have been difficult to estimate usage at that point. I guess I could set it up now.
  - ensignavenger 9y ago
    YOu have to setup the ACH/Direct Debit with each utility here, you can't just set it up at the bank. And the utilities have crappy websites/processes for doing so- if they allow you to do it at all. They have a monopoly, so why bother with improving customer service?
    - 9y ago
octalmage 9y ago
Everything should have automatic payments, and if they don't then they don't deserve to get paid. That said I use Prisim to take care of the rest that don't.
Jemmeh 9y ago
If someone writes about how THEY do things it's a good way to improve MY process. If it improves things for me, what's wrong with saying thanks to the writer? Most of my bills can be automated, but a few cannot. I also take time to read over my statements to check for fraud/bad habits.

michaelmior 9y ago

I prefer not to pay my bills automatically because it doesn't take much time and lets me make sure they are correct.

amigoingtodie 9y ago
Plus, you can more easily switch banks. Provision and migrate accounts with Ansible?
- Johnathanb 9y ago
  In the UK the banks take care of switching over your direct debits and standing orders when you switch bank accounts.
- OJFord 9y ago
  Manually pay bills every month, or whatever period, so that it's easier to switch account? Even if you're switching every year that doesn't sound like a good deal.
apexalpha 9y ago
You can still check if they're correct if you do it automatically though. You can just cancel the tranfer.
- michaelmior 9y ago
  My bank doesn't make that easy for me. Besides, it only takes me a few minutes each month to review and pay bills.

mbrock 9y ago

You probably should stay away from comment threads about personal productivity then?

codeulike 9y ago

I think 'paying bills' here is shorthand for the general administrative burden of being alive, which seems to have grown substantially in recent decades.

smelterdemon 9y ago
In what ways has it grown? It seems easier than ever to track and automate personal finance.
- logfromblammo 9y ago
  For me, "paying bills" is not the literal act of making payments to vendors and creditors. It is the act of exporting one's labor outside the family, in exchange for the medium of exchange required to pay one's bills. I don't "pay my bills" by writing checks and mailing them. I "pay my bills" by working at a corporate peon job for 40 hours a week. If I do the same kind of work at home on a side project, that is still work, but not "bill paying" work. The literal act of paying bills takes me all of five minutes every month. An hour per year, whenever I don't have to add any new payees to the system. I spend more time voiding my bowels, which I always seem to have enough time for, regardless of how much time I spend working. Maybe ancestor post was referring to doing accounts payable and accounts receivable accounting work for the business? Seems like that might be more labor intensive than hitting the "pay" button for the electric bill, even with modern business accounting software. Even then, it wouldn't be something I'd do every day, and if all I felt I could do in the afternoons is light administrative work, I think I'd just knock off early if I didn't have enough to fill at least a solid 2 hours, or if it was the last day of the month.
  - mbrock 9y ago
    I'm the ancestor, and yeah, I do work through my own firm and there are some monthly bills and bookkeeping that's not automatic. I also live overseas and pay my utilities and rent via EU bank transfer.
mrgill92 9y ago

ensignavenger 9y ago

My bank doesn't know how much my bill is going to be every month, so I have to put the amount in. Fortunately, I use simple.com and paying a bill with their mobile app takes a couple of seconds (once I have entered the companies info). Some companies have decent recurring billing via ACH, and I use that on most of my credit cards (I still check the statements each month), but my electric, water, sewer, and gas companies (all separate where I am) all have absolutely terrible websites (and the electric company just plain sucks generally), so I often find myself just paying those bills manually as they come in (after checking them for accuracy).

walshemj 9y ago
You don't have direct debits for this sort of thing ie bill is paid automatically?
- jorvi 9y ago
  Yeah this amazed me too. Usually gas and electric companies make a yearly estimate based on last year's use, then divide that by 12 months. If the estimate overshot, you get money back, otherwise you have to pay a little extra at the end of a 12 month cycle.
  - ensignavenger 9y ago
    That is an option for most of my utilities, but I haven't set it up. I moved a year ago so it would have been difficult to estimate usage at that point. I guess I could set it up now.
- ensignavenger 9y ago
  YOu have to setup the ACH/Direct Debit with each utility here, you can't just set it up at the bank. And the utilities have crappy websites/processes for doing so- if they allow you to do it at all. They have a monopoly, so why bother with improving customer service?
  - 9y ago

octalmage 9y ago

Everything should have automatic payments, and if they don't then they don't deserve to get paid. That said I use Prisim to take care of the rest that don't.

Jemmeh 9y ago

If someone writes about how THEY do things it's a good way to improve MY process. If it improves things for me, what's wrong with saying thanks to the writer? Most of my bills can be automated, but a few cannot. I also take time to read over my statements to check for fraud/bad habits.