You’re not imagining it: you’re doing more unpaid work than ever …
Did you know you have an unpaid part-time job?
No, it’s not the side business you’re building on weekends, or even running your household.
But it still eats away at your time, energy and attention.
I’m talking about the endless stream of financial and life admin modern life demands: reviewing, refinancing, comparing, cancelling, verifying, tracking, paying – the list goes on.
Somewhere along the way, consumers – you, me and everyone else – became the unpaid administrators of our own self-service economy.
How on earth did we get here?
Let’s take a look. And while we’re at it, I’ll share a few ways to streamline it too. Because no one should be spending so much time working for free.
DIY consumer
Once upon a time, companies competed to win our business, and keep it, offering us the best deals.
Loyalty was rewarded and appreciated.
Friendly customer service staff would answer our questions and solve our problems – sometimes offering a store credit for any inconvenience caused.
Then, like a slow-growing cataract, the shift from valued customer to DIY administrator happened so gradually that we barely noticed it clouding our vision:
- Need help? Start with the chatbot.
- Buying groceries: Scan, bag and pay for them yourself.
- Want a better deal? Shop around and find it, then switch providers.
- Need to return something? Print the label, package it up and take it to the post office yourself.
Avoid paying for things you don’t use? Monitor your direct debits, cancel unused subscriptions and stay on top of auto-renewals. - Sign up to anything at all? Create an account, enter another password, add your address and do all the data entry yourself.
While none of these tasks take long on their own, together they compound like interest.
It feels like we are always ‘at work’ at our second job doing life admin.
And if we don’t do it?
We pay for it
If we fail to stay on top of all this busy work, prices creep up and we accidentally pay for things we don’t want or use. It feels as if we are getting financially punished by the very people who take our money.
Just look at the insurance industry.
Regulators have repeatedly raised concerns about pricing practices that can leave loyal customers paying more than new customers. ASIC has taken action against several insurers over pricing and discount practices, while insurance market experts have highlighted what some describe as a “loyalty tax” on long-term customers.
For example, research from Compare the Market (where I am economic director) found that Australians who had been with the same health insurance provider for over 10 years paid an average of $306.88 per month in premiums. Meanwhile, those who had taken out cover within the past year paid an average of $237.84.
That’s a difference of $69.04 a month, which adds up to $828.48 a year – meaning long-term loyal customers are paying around 29 per cent more than new customers.
In other words, If you don’t take it upon yourself to compare policies and negotiate a better deal, there’s a good chance you won’t get one.
The upside of all this admin is more choice and flexibility. The downside is that keeping on top of it is a bore.
So what do you do about it?
Smarter, simpler ways to manage it
We can’t remove life admin entirely. Modern tech is here to stay.
So rather than fighting that reality, the better approach is to accept it – and then find smarter, simpler ways to manage it so it takes up less of your headspace.
But along with this, there are a few things you can do to stop life admin from snowballing.The trick is to make it less constant and less disruptive. Here’s how:
- Batch it. Instead of reacting to bills, emails and renewals as they arrive, set aside a single monthly or quarterly “admin hour” to deal with everything at once. You can send life-admin emails directly to a folder labelled “Admin” and only look at them when you’ve scheduled time to do so.
- Automate the boring-but-important stuff. Set up automatic payments for regular bills, then schedule a reminder once or twice a year to review them so you don’t drift into a bad deal.
- Keep a simple renewal list. Insurance, subscriptions, registrations and memberships all have a habit of sneaking up on us. A single spreadsheet, note on your phone or calendar reminder can stop things slipping through the cracks.
- Use your calendar aggressively. If a discount period, fixed-rate offer or insurance renewal is due in six months, put a reminder in your calendar today. Future you will be grateful.
- Be selective about savings. Not every $10 discount is worth an hour of comparison shopping. Focus on the big-ticket items – insurance, energy, mortgages and telecommunications – where the savings can be meaningful. Sometimes “good enough” is freeing..
What really matters
Modern life comes with more admin than ever before, and much of it has been shifted onto consumers.
But if you can make it more manageable and not so overwhelming, you’ll reclaim something far more valuable than a discounted premium or a better deal.
You’ll get your time back.
