Finance Fridays.

I find deep satisfaction in balancing my financial books each week. I weirdly look forward to it for two reasons: 1) I’m a dork and 2) I relish in the power I yield when I know how much money I have, where it’s going, and what I’m doing with it.

A clean Profit and Loss Statement? Yes, please. Say no more.

I lovingly refer to these number-crunching sessions as Finance Fridays (coined by productivity coach Renee Clair) where weekly, I’ll pay all my bills, pay off my credit cards, update my budget, and check up on outstanding invoices.

I was fortunate at 21 years old to land a job in a bookkeeping office where I learned the foundations of QuickBooks and financial tracking, and those skills have paid off handsomely. It’s made doing my taxes 100% easier and reaching my financial milestones a tangible goal because when my money is organized, it’s in my control. If I’m honest, my delight in pouring an hour or two into reconciling my accounts may teeter on the verge of a coping mechanism to deal with my money anxiety, however, the alternative is giving little attention to my ongoing financial standing. That’s when things get out of hand—usually while I’m browsing Target.

Our relationship with money is a funny and nuanced thing for each of us. Like our relationship to all kinds of things — to food, to work, to sex, to ourselves — how we treat money is fueled by personal narrative and how we were taught to handle it.

I’m not the most money-savvy and I know that. I don’t understand the housing market. I watched Wolf of Wall Street once and pretended I understood financial jargon for the 180-minute runtime. I have no hacks to share and I’m not the person to ask for tips and tricks.

All I do is try to make the most of my credit card points, save and cautiously invest, and stick to a budget. But that basic consistency has done really well for me, and as I’m getting older, are foundational skills I’ve found many of my peers struggle to grasp.

Financial literacy is well worth the study and while we don’t all need to be real estate tycoons and earn north of six figures, it will serve us all greatly to hone in on the basics.