Take out your phone.

How many years have you been working? Type it into your calculator. Then multiply it by your average wage. Hit ‘equals’. Take a deep breath and ask yourself: where did all that money go?

Relax, as I said in Step 2, I’m not going to mention the ‘B’ word. I’m as likely to stick to a budget as I am to cook one of Curtis Stone’s Coles dollar dazzler meals. And the idea of taking a calculator into a supermarket seems a little extreme to me.

Instead we’re going to turn budgeting on its head. I’ve done this process with thousands of people, and it works like clockwork.

Your Money Goals

First, write a list of goals, both short and long term.

It could be a home deposit, your kids’ education, a new car, a holiday, paying off the mortgage early, or having three months of living expenses stashed away.

Set Your Buckets

Second, set up a high-interest online saving account for each goal. I call these ‘buckets’ (each payday you’re going to put some money into each one).

There are only two exceptions: for your kids’ education savings use an investment bond (but as I’ve said over the years, steer well clear of Australian Scholarships Group), and for your first home deposit use a First Home Saver Account (FHSA).

Fill The Buckets

Third, work out how much you’ll need for each of your goals, and when you need them by, and then work backwards.

For example, if you want to take a $2,000 holiday next year you’ll need to sock away $40 a week into one of your buckets to make it happen.

The key is to make this process automatic. So the best strategy is to have your payroll officer automatically fill each of your buckets each payday.

Don’t worry, your brain will soon get back into the swing of things. If you’re like most people, you’ll still blow every last cent, but that’ll be OK because you’ll already have filled your buckets.

Think back to how much money has fallen through your hands since you started work. The power of this step lies in the deadly simple strategy of ‘what you don’t see you don’t spend’. Paul Kelly was right – from little things, big things grow.