[OJFord]

It's probably a better indicator for class divide these days than the classic 'bookshelf'.

But.. bills? As in receiving letters to find out how much I'm supposed to pay and then somehow manually paying them? No, I'm young enough that I've never had to operate like that, but I can barely remember my parents doing so either, certainly not in the last 20 years. Your profile indicates also UK - don't you just pay by DD?

(edit: hang on a second.. my sarcasm detector might be starting to experience a slight tingle.. were you joking?)

[orev]

This is a dangerous line of thinking and eventually most young people who think this way will get burned. So you have everything setup as autopay, and then you have no idea what you’re spending on anything. And then there are incorrect or fraudulent charges on your account and you never notice them, or maybe you do but you can’t dispute it because you didn’t notice them for past 6 months and since you paid them previously, the bank closes your dispute because you previously paid them which shows that you accept the charges. Or some service you use starts slowly increasing the price/fees and you never notice, so you never call to complain about it, and then companies start getting away with doing this all the time when they decide they want more money.

There’s a reason people sit down, review bills and their accounts, and actively keep track of things, and it’s not because they are just old and doing things the old way. It’s because if you are not really paying attention, companies will try to screw you. And no, having some central system that shows you pretty graphs of your spending doesn’t help with this either unless you are really spending time studying the report at least every few weeks.

[bhum]

In the UK, you can use one of the challenger banks like Starling or Monzo. They not only show you "pretty graphs", but give you spending notifications and keep track of your direct debits, standing orders etc. So I don't see a reason to do this all manually yourself, which can also be error prone.

[chrisseaton]

> But.. bills? As in receiving letters to find out how much I'm supposed to pay and then somehow manually paying them?

No obviously not literally 'paying a bill'. I mean managing your personal life. Investments, preparing data for your accountant, budgeting, that kind of thing. Do you not have any hobbies that involve managing things or focused reading and writing? Any volunteering that involves managing an organisation and people? The need to take non-work calls to organise things? What room do you do these things in? Do you not have a desk and chair somewhere?

[OJFord]

Yes I do, I wasn't disagreeing with you. I just thought 'bills and stuff' was amusing and not the first use that would come to my mind.

So yes I already had and used that space for 'personal stuff', (well actually I mostly worked from home anyway there too) but I do understand there's still an argument that it's nice to have a physical divide between work (employed work) and other. I definitely sit there working longer (or going back to work later) than intended sometimes.

When I want to be doing something else, but work's still on my mind or have some sudden realisation, and all work stuff is right there too so it's too easy to 'just quickly' do.

I don't know, there's no perfect answer, sometimes it really is quick and I'd rather get it done and off my mind (easily, because again, it's all right there) than it be harder or tomorrow.