Concept
Money operating system
A money operating system is the one page on which a financial life fits: the number for enough, the automatic flow on payday, the debt plan if any remains, the investment rule with its crash sentence, and the cushion with its target, run through a monthly review and otherwise left alone.
Sethi's promise was a rich life that takes an hour a month; Housel's was that behaviour beats brilliance. The operating system is where they meet. Five lines. Enough: the monthly cost of a life that works and the yearly income beyond which you stop wanting more. The flow: which amounts leave on payday, to which accounts, for investing, savings and bills. The debt plan: the list, the order, the extra payment, until the last balance is zero. The investment rule: which fund, how much, on which day, and the written sentence about what you do in a crash. The cushion: months held and target. Every other idea on the road, tracking, the real hourly wage, the spending plan, frugality, compounding, was a way of filling in one of those lines. The page exists so that the decisions survive next year, and its rule for change is Housel's: alter the system for reasons that come from your life, a new child, a new job, a new number for enough, and never for reasons that come from a screen.
A real-life example
Deniz in Izmir, six months on. Her page reads: enough 42,000 a month; on the fifteenth, 12 percent to the fund at the other bank and 6 percent to the cushion; no debt since March; the fund bought monthly, and in a crash, nothing; cushion at four months, target six. She reviews it on the first Sunday of the month with coffee. The account that was empty for four years is not empty.
How to use it
- 1Write the five lines tonight, by hand or in a note: enough, flow, debt, investment rule, cushion.
- 2Put the monthly review in the calendar as a repeating appointment.
- 3Change a line only for a reason from your life, and write the reason next to the change.