5 Financial Habits I Learned from Dating an Accountant
By: Emily Stubbs
Tags: Self Improvement, Money, Relationships, Life Lessons, Finance

Habit 1: Share accountability with someone

Ultimately, an accountant’s job is to work with people and businesses to manage their money.

As personal money-management expert, radio host, author, and businessman Dave Ramsay says, “everyone needs a budget. Because a budget helps you get ahead of your money, take control of your money goals, punch debt in the teeth and knock it out of your life forever, and so much more.”

However, I have always found that the issue with budgeting is that it relies on consistent, individual accountability; and none of us is infallible.

Ever since we moved in together, my partner and I have had regular personal finance meetings to set, work towards and achieve our financial goals together (and send each other half of the weekly food bill).

Making a commitment to dual accountability with someone you trust who understands your financial goals can give you an external voice of support.

It’s like having a running partner. You’re more likely to get out of bed at 6 am to go on a run because you don’t want to let your running partner down. Afterward, you’re always glad that you did it because the endorphins have made you happy, and the exercise has made you that little bit healthier.

You are more likely not to buy that expensive item of clothing or another unnecessary candle with an accountability partner. When you go through your finances, and what you have saved against your goal, you want to be celebrating meeting that goal, rather than missing it.

Sharing the excitement of getting closer to your financial goals with someone you are reciprocally supporting to reach theirs is an incredible motivation to keep going.

Habit 2: Treat yourself like you would treat someone else

The way my partner manages his money is straightforward. He projects the costs ahead for the next month and commits to saving a certain amount of his paycheck. He treats it like a commitment to someone else because when he’s doing it professionally, that‘s exactly what it is.

If you commit to doing something for a colleague or a friend, would you let them down?

Of course not (except in the most exceptional of circumstances).

But think about the last time you committed to doing something for yourself. Perhaps it was related to your finances, or maybe your health. When was the last time you told yourself you would go on a diet or pick up a new form of exercise?

How quickly did you let yourself down?

Reframing my commitments to myself to be as non-negotiable as those I make to my partner and my friends has meant that I stick to them far more consistently. It’s a simple but efficient way to shift your mindset about the little expenses that add up.

It makes me think about how I will feel later before I buy that overpriced, pre-packaged salad I could make at home.

Habit 3: Sleep on it. Twice.

An accountant is always cautious about expenditure that wasn’t budgeted for.

Occasionally, I want to blow my budget, and occasionally, it’s okay. I want to treat myself, and I’ve earned it.

Before I go ahead and book those flights to Rome or order that pricey new lamp, though, I now allow myself 48 hours to think about it.

Giving myself time to mull over these decisions means that I’m less likely to make a splurge I will regret.

This technique has saved me so much money. Sometimes I go ahead and buy the item, and sometimes I’ll end up buying a slightly cheaper alternative. But often, I completely forget about it. As exciting as a purchase can feel in the moment, it can frequently turn out to not be all that important after all.

Habit 4: Build a spreadsheet that will get you out of bed every morning

You should see what my partner can do with a spreadsheet; it’s like watching Picasso paint.

What I’ve learned from dating an accountant, who looks at money management systems all day, is that there are a million ways to uncover interesting things from the data in your budget.

I’m most definitely not an Excel prodigy, but consistently building and developing my budgeting spreadsheet has helped me stay far better engaged with it than I ever did previously.

Once the novelty of Every Dollar or Mint.com wore off, my enthusiasm for budgeting would always wear down. Going out to dinner at that expensive new sushi restaurant would start to look increasingly appealing.

Now that I have built my own Excel spreadsheet that I can keep adding to and updating, with pivot tables and pie charts and auto-entry forms, it has helped keep me excited about saving.

Doing this has also offered me new insights about where and when I save, spend and make money, which I have used to break unhelpful habits, project my expenditure and budget better.

For example, I now have empirical evidence that it’s ultimately cheaper for me to buy the snacks I want during my Sunday run to Aldi. Because otherwise, I will invariably pay a premium for them at my local convenience store later in the week.

Habit 5: Be proactive with your money

Finally, Accountants are fundamentally proactive in the way they manage money, day in and day out. My partner is the same with his own finances.

When we met, I had a high-interest savings account and a checking account. That was it.

But let’s face it, especially right now, even the highest-interest saving accounts on the market aren’t offering very high rates. The way my partner manages his own money made me realize that there are still several ways to get your money working for you. You need to be a little more proactive.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, but I now also have:

Investments in index funds and dividend-paying shares through a share dealing account with monthly transaction-fee-free days (investing as little as I do, this makes a noticeable difference to my profits);

A new saving account with a preferential rate for first-year customers;

A higher yield limited-access account for the money I’m saving towards longer goals; and

An additional checking account with exactly two direct debits and automatic payments going between it and my primary checking account, which I regularly move between banks to take advantage of their bonus schemes.

Dating someone so proactive with their money made me realize that banks will pay you to join them, and they’ll do all the heavy lifting for you.

In the UK, a March 2020 update to the government’s market study on current accounts revealed that the current (or checking) account switching rate is only around 3%.

In many countries, because of similar issues, to try and increase competition, regulatory authorities have made ridiculously simple to switch checking accounts. In the UK, most banks and building societies are signed up to the Current Account Switching Service (CASS).

Therefore, when you want to switch to a new account, the new bank will switch your automatic payments and transfer your balance, and your old bank will take care of closing your old account. Basically, they’ll do the work for you.

The government’s market study shows that the CASS has helped increase switching somewhat since its inception in September 2013, but people still rarely switch, citing inertia as the primary reason why.

But banks want new current account holders. So much so, at least in the UK, they will pay bonuses to new customers making the switch. For example, HSBC is currently offering new customers £125 (c.$160) to make the move to their Advance Account.

Opening and closing bank accounts, you should always remain conscious of your credit score. However, dating an accountant has taught me that doing your research and putting in a tiny bit of logistical work pays off. I now have half a dozen accounts and keep track of the money I move around in my budget and my Google calendar. Cumulatively, I earn double the interest rate I did previously.