One of the things I’ve seen people struggle with consistently is staying caught up with their mail - both physical and electronic mail. You might be wondering, “What does this have to do with my money?” I’ll do my best to answer that for you by the end of this article.

Let’s start with a little history. Prior to electronic mail, most of my business was handled over the phone. I had always been committed to answering my phone and returning messages within 24 hours. I typically stayed pretty-well caught up with my phone calls and messages.

Then email came along. Before long, it was easy to become overwhelmed with the daily volume of messages. It was typical for me to receive well over 200-300 emails a day. I remember feeling anxious and asking myself, “How in the world am I going to stay caught up with this?”

I found a way that worked for me, and I’ll share my method here shortly. But first, ask yourself a few questions.

1. Does your physical mail pile up in a corner of your house, so much so that you hide it when friends or family stop by?

2. Does your inbox overflow to the point that it causes you anxiety?

3. Have you paid late fees on bills simply because you forgot to pay them?

I’ve experienced all of these situations, and many of my clients have as well. Here’s the process that works for me. I call it TRAF to make it easy to remember and simple to explain.

Think about the mail you receive - both physical and electronic. What percentage of it is junk? For me, it’s a solid 90%. I bet the same is true for you. So the first thing I do is Trash the junk.

That’s the T - Trash it!

R - Read it!

Whew! What a relief! With 90% of the anxiety gone, we can deal with the other 10% of the stuff arriving in our mailboxes and inboxes. Sometimes there is some useful information that shows up, and I want to read it to gain some new insight or intelligence. So that’s what I do. I Read it. And then I Trash it. I was explaining this to a couple recently and shared with them that I often literally stand next to the recycle can, read the mail that has something interesting in it, and then toss it. So that’s the R - Read it. And then Trash it.

A - Act on it!

And then from time to time, on a rare occasion, we receive something that we need to act on. Maybe it’s a wedding invitation where we need to RSVP or a bill that needs to be paid. Let’s take the invitation example. I’ll hold onto the invitation for a bit. I need to check the calendar, discuss it with my wife, decide if we can attend or not. If we can, we need to get it on our calendar and send our RSVP. If we can’t make it, of course, we need to send our regrets. We need to check the couple’s wedding registry and get a gift. Once all that’s taken care of, guess what? That’s right. Trash it. We do have one caveat for wedding invitations. In the spirit of upcycling, we like to craft the wedding invitation into a gift tag back to the couple. But you get the point. A - Act on it. Then Trash it. (or recycle or upcycle)

F - File it!

And finally, there will be a few things you receive that need to be Read, and maybe Acted on, and then Filed for future reference. One of the best examples of this that I can think of is my energy bill. This bill is set up for auto-pay, but it varies from month to month based on the amount of energy we use. So when it arrives, I Read it to be aware of our usage and spending. I already Acted on it when I set it up for auto-pay, so I check the bill to confirm that hasn’t changed. I usually receive the bill the month prior to the due date, so I File it until I set up the next month’s budget. This helps me make sure our zero-based budget is set to cover all of these variable expenses. So that’s the F - File it. (And see, this is where I connected TRAF to your budget!)

You’ll need to review those items you file from time to time. For example, the utility bill only needs to be filed until I get the budget set and the bill paid. So once that’s complete, what do I do? Trash it. For other documents, maybe they need to be filed in a safe because they’re super-important. Others land somewhere in-between. But I like to review my filed documents at least once a year so I can - yep, you guessed it - Trash it. 

TRAF it!

So there you have it. When it comes to dealing with your email and mail, try TRAFing it. 

• Trash it

• Read it - then Trash it

• Act on it - then Trash it

• File it (if you need to) - then Trash it someday

Practicing this takes me less than 5 minutes a day, and relieves so much anxiety it’s hard to measure. I hope this lightens your load and brightens your day!

Want Some Help?

Thinking through all the financial decisions that need to be made can be overwhelming. If you could use some help learning to live within your means, building up your emergency fund, and staying caught up with your bills, book a free consultation. While I don’t sell any financial product, we will work together to build out your plan and then work the plan together. It’ll make a difference!