Our Singapore meetup was so fun! 🥳
If you’ve thought about building a new income stream in 2025, then we’re offering a Black Friday special for our cohort on November 26-29. RSVP for the waitlist now.
Today, in 10 minutes or less, you’ll learn:
- 🌏️ How to create a hands-off international money system that works while you sleep
- 🧰 The exact tools high-performers use to automate their wealth-building
- 🏦 How to implement the Profit First method for your business finances
- 📆 Two proven monthly timelines to schedule all your money moves
FROM OUR PARTNERS
Announcing… the 5-Day Monetize Your Expertise Mini-Course! 🤩
(Click the image above to watch my new videos.)
Exciting news! I revamped my ENTIRE mini-course with fresh video lessons. 💥
Over 5 days, you’ll learn how I earned 6-figures through consulting side hustles taking 10 hours/week, kickstarting my portfolio career.
I'll teach you step-by-step how to choose your niche, test, and launch your consulting side hustle.
Want to learn more? Don’t miss my new videos.
Enroll in my free 5-Day Monetize Your Expertise Mini-Course:
CLICK HERE TO JOIN MY MINICOURSE »
P.S. I’m launching a Black Friday Special on November 26th. Limited Time Offer (50% Off) for our Next Cohort Starting January 7th, 2025. RSVP for the Waitlist Now.
⚙️ 5 Ways to Automate Your Finances
"I just missed another investment." 🤦
That was me, staring at my phone in Singapore at 11 PM, realizing I'd forgotten—again—to transfer money to my US brokerage account.
I was dropping the ball on basic money moves.
Sound familiar?
- Multiple accounts across countries
- A growing investment portfolio
- Family finances to juggle
- A business to run
- And the constant fear of missing something important
After one too many late-night panic sessions, I built a system to manage most of my money automatically.
No more forgotten transfers.
No more missed investment opportunities.
No more late-night money stress.
In this newsletter, I'll breakdown the exact 5-part automation system I have used to manage:
- International transfers
- Investment contributions
- Bill payments
- Family finances
- Business accounts
But first, let me explain why high-performers need to stop managing money manually...
🤔 Why “Set and Forget”?
Growing up, “I’ll do it myself” was my mantra.
Like many high achievers, I prided myself on taking control.
But here's what I learned the hard way:
Manual money operations are not worth your time.
Now? I delegate and automate as much as I can.
Here’s why:
- Reduces my decision fatigue
- Avoids relying on self-control to invest
- Saves myself from making costly mistakes
- Converts my overwhelm into peace of mind
This is how I do it:
🌏️ International Money Transfer
When I lived in Singapore, I got swamped with work.
And I completely forgot to transfer money to my US accounts.
My credit card payment bounced. I missed my scheduled investment. And I got hit with fees.
Yikes.
The Tool: Wise (sign up)
Fortunately, I discovered Wise allows you to schedule recurring cross-border transfers.
My exact setup:
- Monthly transfer from Singapore → US accounts
- Automated payments to US credit cards and investments
How to implement:
- Link your accounts to Wise
- Schedule monthly transfers (local accounts → Wise)
- Setup forward transfers (Wise → foreign accounts)
Pro Tip: Schedule international transfers 3 days before you need the money in your destination account. This builds in a buffer for processing times.
📊 Investments & Savings
"I'll invest when the market dips further."
That was me in 2020. I had cash ready but kept waiting for the "perfect" moment.
Result? I missed a portion of the bull market.
In retrospect, I should have just automated my investment schedule.
Now, my monthly investing and savings run like clockwork:
- 6-Month Emergency Fund
- Kid’s 529 College Savings
- Taxable/Retirement Investments
How to implement:
Schedule monthly transfers:
- From your payroll to your pre-tax retirement accounts
- From your checking to your post-tax investment accounts (Taxable, Retirement)
- From your checking to your savings accounts (Emergency Fund, Savings Goals)
💳️ Bill Payments
Missed your credit card payment? Been there.
Now, I schedule all my monthly payments for my credit cards:
- AMEX Platinum (personal)
- AMEX Bonvoy (personal)
- Mercury IO (business)
- AMEX Blue Business Plus (business)
How to implement:
- List every recurring payments (Credit Cards, Utilities, Loans, Etc.)
- Link your checking account to the bill payments
- Setup a monthly autopay
Pro-Tip: Set bill payment dates 5 days after your salary deposit, to ensure you always have enough in your checking account
👨👩👧👦 Family Finance
How do you split the bills? Which accounts should you combine?
These questions hit me hard after getting married.
After trying several approaches, here's what worked:
Yours, Mine, Ours System:
- Joint checking for all fixed costs (rent, utilities, groceries/food)
- Joint savings for couple savings goals (honeymoon, business)
- Separate accounts for personal investments and worry-free spending
The Tool: Mercury Personal (sign up)
Mercury Personal ($240/year) has been a savior.
Why it works:
- No SSN required to add non-US spouse (as user)
- Multiple linked accounts
- Automated transfers between accounts
- Individual debit cards for joint accounts
How to implement:
- Decide to combine all, some, or none of your accounts
- Create distinct joint accounts for various purposes
- Calculate how much to contribute to your joint accounts
- Schedule recurring transfers to your joint accounts
Here is how we determined the amount to transfer:
- Calculate total household income ($300k example)
- Determine income split (60/40 let’s say)
- Apply same ratio to expenses ($6k/$4k monthly)
- Automate transfers on a monthly basis
🧑💻 Business Finance
Where did all the money go?
That was me a few years ago, staring at my business account, wondering why I still had no profit despite healthy revenue.
The problem? I was paying expenses first, treating profit as an afterthought.
Now, I use Mercury Business Banking automations to avoid this pain:
The Tool: Mercury Business (sign up)
I use Mercury Business to setup multiple business bank accounts and auto transfer rules between the accounts.
You can use these capabilities to setup Profit First rules.
How to implement:
I setup 5 bank accounts:
- Income (revenue starts here)
- Profit (5% of income)
- Owner’s Pay (50%)
- Expenses (30%)
- Taxes (15%)
Daily Automation Rules:
- Revenue comes into Income account
- Mercury automatically distributes based on percentages
- Transfers happen daily (not monthly) for better cash flow
Pro-Tip: Here are rough Profit First guidelines on Profit, Owner’s Pay, Tax, and OpEx splits:
📆 Monthly Schedules
Here are two monthly schedules heavily inspired by my own workflows:
Example 1: Full-Time Professional, Singapore-Based, US Expat
This monthly schedule combines the international money transfer, savings and investment, bill payments, and family finance use cases.
Example 2: US LLC/S-Corp Business Owner, Married
This monthly schedule combines the savings and investment, bill payments, family finance, and small business use cases
In Summary
The true cost of “doing it yourself”:
- Mental bandwidth drain
- Missed opportunities
- Relationship stress
- Lost time
My 5-part automated money system:
- International: Wise for cross-border transfers
- Investments: Automated contributions
- Bills: Scheduled payments
- Family: Mercury Personal for joint finances
- Business: Mercury Business with Profit First
Action steps for this week:
- Map your current money flows
- Choose ONE system to automate first
- Set up your first automated transfer
- Mark your calendar to review it in 30 days
- Rinse and repeat!
🌐 Beyond your borders
✅ Ideal Order Of Investing For High Income Earners (Youtube)
🥱 The Cost of Apathy. (JR)
⌛️ Struggling with appreciating time and being stingy with expenses is stunting growth (Reddit)
🧠 Social snippets
Yesterday, we hosted an intimate meetup for Money Abroad readers, cohort students, and community friends in Singapore. 🇸🇬
For daily insights, follow me on Linkedin or Threads.
FROM OUR READERS
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