One of your last points is tops on my list– communicating with your spouse. This is a key to successful personal finance AND successful marriage!

It worked out great as I lost my job the end of January and now I know how long I can live on UI and my savings. It’s a little depressing now that my savings are edging down instead of up, BUT, at least I HAVE the savings to live on. It’s giving me a lot of piece of mind.

For internet/cable/phone/cel, it’s also automatic debit and I can make a guess of how much it will be to put in my budget, but regardless of the amount, it is something that it HAS to be paid anyway, so it goes on automatic as well.

:-)

-I download my transactions into Quicken from my bank accounts and CC accounts. I don’t tend to enter anything into Quicken manually; I just wait for it to show up at the bank/on the CC, which I realize is less than thorough, but my husband is terrible about keeping receipts and I’d have holes in my data either way.
-I enter the downloaded transactions into my budget spreadsheet in Excel (I hate how Quicken organizes the budget so I do it my own way in Excel… more work, but infinitely less annoying).
-I send a quick e-mail to my husband with the updated budget figures for his work-lunch budget so he can see how much he’s spent/has left to spend for the month and decide on lunch accordingly.
-I check for e-mails, make phone calls, and prepare snail mail for things regarding personal finance (check for auto-payment notifications, call a service provider to get rates lowered or ask questions about a bill, mail the few paper checks I need to mail to people like my gardener and pool-cleaning guy, etc.)
Time spent: about 7 minutes, 10-15 if I have to make phone calls or write checks.

Once a month:
-At the beginning of each month I go over the previous month’s figures, make sure everything matches up with what quicken/my online balances say, put together and print out some reports through Quicken and from my own budget/forecasting/net worth spreadsheets, and spend a few minutes reviewing my savings/investment goals. This takes about 30 mins. I spend another 10 minutes showing this paperwork to my husband and we discuss anything that either of us feels is salient.

I do spend about an hour a day surfing around and reading personal finance blogs, but that’s just because I find it interesting. I’d likely be surfing around looking at other stuff or facebooking anyway, so it’s not really extra time spent.

1. moved most of my stuff to automatic bill pay by signing up w/ each credit card or utility companies manually.

2. Invested in software such as Quicken. It allows you to automatically download transactions and gives me a budget comparison report.

#1 & #2 combined saves me my balancing checkbook time.

I also had online statements for most of my accounts. I used to check it religiously every month to download the statements. But I find that it’s really a waste of my time. If I manage my money well, usually there shouldn’t be problems to begin w/. Now I do it every few months.

Also have invested in a nice scanner so that I no longer have to manually file all the papers (and have to find space for) that some companies still insist on sending me. Having it in a computer also makes it easy to search and lookup

All this takes some time to set up but it definitely saves time down the road.

You have taken that to heart.

I think the hours you put into reading in the financial genre and taking care of your own business definitely help you give us important, accurate, and first class information. You know, in another 10 years, you could overtake Warren Buffet.

I have ALL my bills and I mean, ALL OF THEM, on direct debit payment. I never had to worry about missing a payment, it’s makes life SOOOOO much easier!!!

I also input all our expenditure into a monthly spreadsheet so I can check our actual vs budgeted spend, but now that I’ve been doing this for a year, I’m thinking of stopping and saving the time for other activities. Ideally some income generating ideas I have.

And like you I’ve been looking over a few prospectus’ lately, too. I’m also perusing over some possible stock purchases and doing the necessary research. It is time to think about buying again.

I coach cross country in the fall and track in the spring, and during those seasons I have much less time. But during the winter, as well as the summer (no work), I don’t find that the time involved is an issue.