Open the envelopeEveryday life

unbry

Open the envelope

A short book about avoiding bills, statements and the banking app, which lets small money problems grow in the dark

17 chapters11,314 wordsAbout 51 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two or three sittings. It's about one habit. Letters about money arrive and you don't open them. Your banking…2 min
1The drawerIt's Saturday morning and you're at the supermarket checkout. The total is forty-three pounds twenty. You tap your card. The machine thinks about it and…3 min
2Why not looking feels betterIf you hide from your bank balance, you may have concluded that you're unusually childish about money. You're not. Avoiding information that might hurt is…3 min
3"What I don't see can't hurt me"The investors in the last chapter could afford to look away. If you don't check your pension for a month while the market's down, nothing happens as a…3 min
4"It'll only be bad news"You treat the drawer as though it were full of bad news. That's why things go into it. Let's look at what was in the one from chapter 1, since I'd guess…3 min
5"I know roughly where I am"Most people who don't look would say they have a fair idea of their position. They know what they earn. They know the big outgoings. They haven't bought…3 min
6"Looking makes me feel sick"For some readers the reasons so far are beside the point. You know the bills don't shrink in the drawer. You know the rough idea is unreliable. You don't…3 min
7"There's nothing I could do about it anyway"Underneath a lot of not looking is a quiet fatalism. Suppose the letter does say you owe money you haven't got. What then? Opening it won't produce the…3 min
8What not looking costsYou've met most of the costs by now, but it's worth seeing them in one list. Individually they're small, and that's how the habit survives. Nothing on the…3 min
9"I'm just bad with money"People with this habit often hold a settled belief about themselves, and they say it lightly, as a joke. "I'm hopeless with money." "I've never had a head…3 min
10Ten seconds a dayThe practical part of this book has two habits in it. This chapter is about the smaller one, because it's the one that changes how looking feels. The…3 min
11Emptying the drawerBefore the new habits can work, there's the backlog to deal with. For many readers this is the hardest single thing in the book, so I'll go through it…3 min
12The weekly lookThe daily ten seconds keeps you in touch with the number. The weekly look is where anything gets done about it. It takes about twenty minutes, at the same…3 min
13The decisionThis chapter asks you to decide something. It comes late because at the start it would have sounded like a telling-off, the sort of thing you've heard…3 min
14Debt, partners and weeks you can't face itThe method is simple. Some situations aren't, and I should be plain about them. If what you find is debt you can't manage. Some readers will empty the…4 min
15The drawer againHere's a scene from some months later. It's an example of how things might go, and I'm not promising it. It's a Thursday, and the post comes while you're…2 min
·NotesThis book gives general information. It isn't financial, legal or medical advice, and it's no substitute for a debt adviser, solicitor or doctor who knows…4 min

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