We all pay the price of convenience, the price of saying ‘I just cannot be f*cked to look into this right now’
Have you ever thought of what the ‘occasional’ Uber Eats is really costing you? Or you know you could be paying less for your phone bill but cannot be bothered to negotiate?
Have you noticed that the busier you feel the less likely you are to get home and cook your meal? Well, we have found that there is a direct connection between being busy and overpaying for things and this is costing us a lot of money.
We all pay the price of convenience, the price of saying ‘I just cannot be f*cked to look into this right now’ and that is what we call The Laziness Tax.
What would Nan do if she had a credit card?
My Nan had a busy life. Raising 5 kids in the Forties and Fifties was tough. Super tough but my Nan knew where nearly every cent was spent. She had to. There were no credit cards or After Pay. Nan’s budget was finite. When the envelope was empty there was no other way to pay. And to be fair, there were also no businesses making her life easy like Uber Eats or an amazing, visually enticing coffee shop in every corner.
We don’t have these problems, we, in fact, have completely opposite problems. Our payments are automated, our finances are so complicated and we can find convenience everywhere we look. But this all convenience comes at a high cost.
We get it, life is completely different these days we are hyper-busy humans, we work hard, we have social lives, we have families to look after, on top of that we want to eat healthily and workout to be fit and hoping to have five minutes to find a hobby to relax. Where here are we going to find time to get our finances in order?
But just think about this for a second, I was speaking with a friend last week who also happens to be a financial planner and she told me she hadn’t reviewed her finances for a while and when she did, she noticed that she was still paying car insurance for a car she sold 12 months before. This happens more often than we think, and it happens to all of us. When I audited my own accounts and realised I was paying for an old magazine membership I wasn’t even getting delivered to my house anymore I thought to myself ‘there’s my money, gone to the bin’.
This is what we call the Laziness Tax.
Avoid The Laziness Tax, like the plague…
here are other small ways we might be paying for this laziness tax, paying the extra fee for withdrawing money from a different bank’s ATM or buying lunch every day because we just don’t have time to do a meal-prep for the week. These are the little things that we do without even thinking. Here’s my opinion on this: it’s not the same buying sushi or going to the sandwich place every day and paying $10-15 per meal than spending $50-60 on the weekend with friends out. See? One of them is paying the ‘can’t be f*cked to cook for the week’ tax and the other one is paying for a night out with your friends.
So, if what you want is to stop paying the laziness tax preparation is always the best place to start. Whether is taking a few hours on the weekend to prepare your meals for the week, or allocating 15 mins every week to review your spending (we need to regularly review our accounts to see what payments are we just not using) or simple walk an additional 5 mins to save $10 on a purchase.
Another approach is to simply outsource. Bare with me for a second here while I give you a good analogy, I understand the need and actually like living in a clean house but I despise cleaning my bathroom. So, what do I do? I hire cleaners, they come once a month and I pay $75 and I get a clean house once per month. This helps me motivate myself to keep it nice and tidy for the next time they come and clean.
If you value having your financial house in order but you don’t have the time or the confidence to manage your money, outsource it (for the price of gym membership). A BFF membership only costs $80 and with the help of your very own BFF (your money coach), you will have your financial house in order at no time. Best of all your monthly meetings will keep you connect and accountable so you never have to stress about money again and you will reach your goals faster.
So pay your laziness tax ($80) to us and we will save you $457 per month plus a trip to the doctor to treat the symptoms of your stress.
Pete Lord. I’m passionate about helping people have a better relationship with money. Are you doing the best you can? I am sure you are. I’m here to help you be the best version of yourself 😉