How I Run My Finances (Step-by-Step) & Became a Millionaire

I don’t use spreadsheets every day. I don’t budget obsessively. And I didn’t get here overnight.

It’s just me. No one else is going to take care of my finances so I’ve come up with a pretty simple, easy to follow, way to manage my finances that you can copy. It’s a free, simple, repeatable money management system. Let me break it down for you.

woman journaling outside on her deck in a comfy chair

Step-by-Step Money Management System That Helped Me Become A Millionaire

What gets tracked gets improved. That’s what I believe. If we aren’t paying attention to our money, we aren’t going to be able to improve our money situation.

Before I started really implementing a money system, I was doing okay, but once I got serious about it, my money skyrocketed, along with my happiness.

It wasn’t just randomly spending money and then regretting it later. It was me being intentional on what I spent my money on and being happy with my purchases.

My Financial Philosophy (Before the Tactics)

I believe simplicity beats complexity. It is important to keep an eye on your finances, but it does not need to be complicated.

Automation matters more than motivation or willpower. If it’s automated, I don’t have to worry about doing it and it actually gets done.

Long-term thinking vs quick wins has kept me on the straight and narrow. I don’t want a ‘maybe’ quick win here and there, I want a proven, guaranteed system that helps me make money over the long-term.

I will take the proven system over a quick win every time. Women are actually better investors than men because they are able to leave their money invested and let it grow over time. Usually men will try to get that quick win and end up losing more than winning over the long-term.

As you can see, my system works really well, especially for single women.

woman at her laptop smiling with text overlay, "How I Run My Finances (Step by Step). The simple money system that made me a millionaire)"

Step 1 — Know Exactly Where Your Money Is Going

My favorite tool to help me keep everything organized is a free app called Empower (used to be called Personal Capital and a previously similar one was Mint).

I love that I can connect all of my money accounts (mortgage, credit cards, checking, savings, brokerage, 401k, etc) and see them all inside Empower.

I can quickly glance at Empower and see my entire financial situation within a minute.

Being aware of where our money is going comes before budgeting.

If we can see our spending habits then we can set up a budget that will fit our lifestyle and we can choose the areas to improve.

Also, there are certain things we don’t need to track individually. I like to group similar items together.

For example, going to a movie/play/out to eat I will track together. I have a category called, ‘Fun Stuff’ and will put different expenses into that one category.

You can set up whichever categories work for you and add them to the Empower app.

You can see exactly where you are spending the most money and if you need to change up your spending habits so they align more with your values.

Woman outside journaling with a blanket over her. A calendar in the corner saying bills paid, invest, savings. A phone in the bottom corner saying automatic savings transfer complete and investment auto deposit complete.

Step 2 — Automate Everything You Can

I love automation. And in case you are like me and worry about some payments not actually going through, my system helps with that too!

I automate:
Savings
Investing
Bills

Automation removed my emotional decision-making. If the market is up or down, it doesn’t matter. My money is getting automatically invested.

I don’t have to stop and think if I should wait to invest. It gets done & it works well this way. It’s called Dollar Cost Averaging and studies show the sooner our money is invested, the more money we make.

Not only do we make more money, we also save time and mental energy.

No more logging into every single account to pay every single bill. No more opening the account and thinking we have a lot of money in there so we should buy another pair of shoes….

Nope. It’s all automated. I feel happier, more energized and have time to focus on more fun things!

Woman in her living room picking up a cup of hot apple cider and intentional living books next to her on the coffee table.

Step 3 — Spend Intentionally (Not Perfectly)

Spending with intention has made a such a difference for me. I’m happy to spend money on things that are going to add value to my life in some way.

Whether it’s containers for a salad bar in my fridge or a course that helps me make more money, I’m happy to spend money on those things that are improving my life.

Spending on just a random pair of shoes, or purchasing things that are on sale just because they are on sale, don’t really bring me a lot of happiness.

In the moment, it might be exciting, but when I get home and have to make room for these things and then don’t even use them, I wish I could just have the money back.

It’s more about living below your means without deprivation.
Decide what actually matters to you and spend your money there.

I have friends that love to spend money on little trinkets when they go on vacation and that is great for them. I could care less about little trinkets. It would just mean trying to make room in my home for more things.

I would rather spend money on remodeling my backyard because I love spending my time in my backyard.

Think of things or experiences you’ve had that you would spend that same money on again. Focus your spending there and cut back on things you’ll regret buying later.

Intentional spending gives you more money to spend where it will provide the most happiness for you!

Laptop showing a graph with an upward trending arrow and a small plant next to the laptop. A glass of orange juice and a stack of papers with a pen is in front of the laptop on a coffee table.

Step 4 — Invest Consistently (Even When It Feels Boring)

Let’s jump to investing for a bit. This is a big one.

We want our money working for us so we don’t HAVE to work for the money.

Note, I stated ‘HAVE’ to work for the money. It is great if you always want to work, but if something were to happen where you weren’t able to work for a time, wouldn’t it be great to know that you still have money coming in? I think so.

My investing is pretty boring, BUT that’s because boring works. I didn’t become a millionaire by day trading, by taking extreme risks or staying up late stressing about my investments.

I became a millionaire by investing in stable companies, in index funds and long-term rental properties.

I buy and hold. My investments go up over the long-term. So much so, that they put me at millionaire status at age 40. Had I followed my system even earlier in life, I would have become a millionaire even earlier. Hindsight is 20/20, as we already know. 😉

I like time in the market, not timing the market.

I don’t care if my investments drop $20k today. I don’t need them to double tomorrow. I’m investing for the long term and I KNOW (because I’ve seen it with my own investments) my investments will go up over the long term.

An easy way to start investing is to pick a total stock market index fund and continue to buy more and more shares of that one fund. It’s boring, but VERY effective.

By me being consistent over time (and keeping my investing boring), I was able to build momentum with my investments. This didn’t happen over night. It happened over every single day I’ve been invested in the market and in real estate.

Woman smiling outside in her backyard sitting in a wooden chair by her fire pit.

Step 5 — Use Real Estate Strategically

Real estate fit my goals. I wanted semi-passive income so I didn’t have to work for someone else. Real estate provided that for me.

I was able to quit my 9-5 and still get paid.

I don’t have a large real estate empire, but enough to create a full-time income to cover my expenses.

I actually like simplifying my life. I have 3 properties total (I used to have 4, but sold one; I’ll touch on this in another blog post).

I don’t want to be over-leveraged. I don’t want to hire a property management company. So, I may buy another property later, but I don’t have a desire to have a real estate empire.

I have a friend that has quite a few properties, I’m actually not sure how many anymore. He loves it. He likes having an empire.

I’m good with just a few properties that takes care of my expenses and doesn’t take up that much of my time.

I know people that have zero interest real estate and that’s great too. It’s just more about knowing the life you want to have and what will get you there – then focusing on those things.

Investing in real estate helped accelerate my wealth. I was also able to live with roommates that helped pay off my mortgage.

I was able to finish my basement and rent out another room.

I have been able to increase rent without increasing my mortgage payment.

I’ve been able to pay off all of my properties and now live entirely mortgage free. I will always have a place to live. (I mean, unless property taxes get so out of control…. 😬)

Long term rentals have helped me create the life and freedom I desired. It is just one way avenue of investing money.

Woman smiling, writing in her journal at her desk with other financial papers on her desk. Sunshine is coming in through the window on her right side. Text overlay, consistency over perfection in the top left.

Step 6 — Revisit, Refine, Repeat

Since I don’t have risky investments, I am not analyzing them every day.

I do check my Empower app most days to make sure things are looking good. I used to check it every day, but over time I’ve become more relaxed. Since I’ve been tracking my money for years, I know where I tend to spend, I know what I need to watch and I have things automated so I don’t feel like I need to put as much focus on my money system.

Every month I will see how much extra I have available in my checking account so I can transfer it over to my brokerage account!

This is my favorite thing. Since I don’t have a 9-5, I don’t know how much money I will be making each month.

I have a set amount that will automatically get invested each month, but then I love to see what’s leftover to invest because I don’t like leaving a lot in my checking account. It’s not earning any interest and I need my money working for me.

I’ll see what the amount is that will go toward my bills for the upcoming month & transfer the rest to my brokerage account so I can get it working for me sooner than later!

I used to fill out my spreadsheet each month with all of my expenses, but now I just make sure my rental spreadsheets & business profit and loss are filled out for my accountant.

I keep track of things in Empower and call it a day. If there is something that looks off, I will dig into that more.

In order to be a little more relaxed, I was tracking everything for years so I know when something would look off. I didn’t just start this way.

CONCLUSION

Wealth is built quietly, over time.
You don’t need to earn more first (while this is important), you first need to know where you are currently with your finances. Then you can see if you are spending more than you are earning or where you need to make adjustments in your spending or investing habits.

Start with one step. Just do one thing to get your money on track, then you can move to the next step. No need to feel overwhelmed. We all started at the beginning.