Have you ever opened three browser tabs at once comparing credit-card rewards, high-yield savings rates, and the latest “can’t-miss” stock tip—only to close them all an hour later feeling exhausted and no richer? Yeah, me too.
The internet is stuffed with advice telling us we’re doing money wrong unless we’re optimizing every last basis point. But here’s a little secret I wish someone had whispered to me a decade ago: perfect is the enemy of wealthy. Sometimes the fastest way to reach your financial goals is to stop trying so hard.
A seasoned personal-finance expert who literally writes the book on retirement recently laid out four moves that aren’t glamorous, aren’t going to make you the hero of Reddit’s financial-independence forum, but they work—quietly, consistently, and with a fraction of the hassle. I’ve road-tested all four over the past couple of years, and honestly? My net worth is higher and my Sunday evenings are mine again.
Why “Good Enough” Usually Wins the Race
Before we dive in, let me save you some grief. The financial industry makes money when you believe you need complexity. Fancy funds, timing the market, jumping banks every time a new teaser rate pops up—those are profit centers for someone else, not you.
In my experience, once your savings rate is decent, almost everything else becomes noise. A solid-but-boring plan you’ll actually stick with for twenty years beats a brilliant plan you abandon after twenty months. Every. Single. Time.
1. Reverse Budgeting – Pay Yourself First and Forget the Rest
Forget color-coded spreadsheets and tracking every coffee. Reverse budgeting is gloriously lazy and ridiculously effective.
Here’s how it works: Decide on a percentage of your income—15-20% feels right for most people earning a middle-class salary—and automate it the moment your paycheck hits your account. Retirement accounts first, then an emergency fund or taxable brokerage. Whatever is left in checking? That’s your “life” money. Spend it guilt-free.
I set mine to 18% a few years ago. Some months I eat fancy ramen, other months I book flights to Lisbon. The magic is that my investments keep growing whether I’m paying attention or not. Last time I checked, I was on track to retire at 58 without ever opening a budgeting app again.
“If you are saving reasonably, it obviates the need to do a lot of other things.”
A phrase I now live by
Think of it like exercise. Running three miles consistently beats planning the perfect marathon training schedule you never start.
2. Index Funds – The Ultimate “Set It and Forget It” Move
Every year we get fresh proof that the vast majority of professional stock-pickers can’t beat a simple S&P 500 index fund over a decade. Yet millions of us still pay them to try.
I used to be that guy—chasing the hot sector, reading earnings reports at 2 a.m., feeling smart for about five minutes until the market reminded me who’s boss. Then I moved everything into three boring index funds: total U.S. stock market, total international, and a bond fund for ballast.
Result? My returns are now within a hair of the pros, my fees are a tenth of what they were, and I haven’t logged into my brokerage to “check on things” in months. The peace of mind is worth more than any extra 0.8% I might have squeezed out.
- One fund gives you 4,000 U.S. companies
- Another gives you 9,000 companies worldwide
- Sleep well knowing you own the haystack instead of hunting for the needle
Perhaps the most interesting aspect? Rebalancing is practically automatic if you just add new money in whatever bucket is lowest. Zero drama.
3. Stop Chasing Pennies – Simplify Your Financial Relationships
I once had cash scattered across seven accounts because one bank offered 4.30% and another promised 4.35%. I spent more time moving money than I made in extra interest.
Here’s the adult decision I finally made: Pick one or two solid, low-cost providers you actually like dealing with and consolidate. My everyday banking, high-yield savings, credit-card rewards, and investments now live under basically one roof.
Yes, some random online bank might offer 0.15% more this month. But the mental bandwidth I got back is worth far more than the $27 a year I might leave on the table.
“Reducing the number of financial relationships is such a good practice.”
When my mom eventually inherits my accounts (knock on wood), she’ll thank me for not leaving a scavenger hunt across half the internet.
4. Outsource the Optimization – Yes, Even Experts Hire Help
This one surprised me the most. A director-level personal finance expert who literally spends her days researching retirement strategies still hired a fee-only financial planner for her own money.
Her reasoning was simple: The planner has better software, runs more scenarios, and catches blind spots she might miss because she’s too close to it. Plus, it frees her brain for the parts of life she actually enjoys.
I resisted for years—“I write about this stuff, I should be able to do it myself.” Then I ran the numbers. Paying 0.5–0.8% a year for someone to handle rebalancing, Roth conversions, tax-loss harvesting, and the inevitable rule changes coming out of Washington? Turns out it’s some of the best money I spend.
Think of it like hiring a cleaner. You could scrub your own floors, but the hours you get back are worth more than the fee.
Look, if you’re the type who gets a genuine thrill from spreadsheet modeling at 11 p.m. on a Friday, keep doing you. But if the thought of one more “optimization” makes you want to throw your phone into the ocean, try these four moves instead.
They’re not sexy. They won’t get you on any leaderboards. But in ten or twenty years, when you’re sipping something cold on a beach you own outright while the perfectionists are still tweaking their portfolios, you’ll know exactly why good enough was actually perfect.
Your future self already sent you a thank-you note. Might be time to listen.
