How much time do you spend with your money?
Hello Frugalistas! Recently, I moderated a panel on "Dollars and Sense" at a National Coalition of 100 Black Women conference. One of the panelists suggested that we spend three hours per week on financial matters. At first, that seemed like a long time. Borderline obsessive. After I thought about it, it’s not.
I took a Friday off work recently to handle personal business. For much of the morning, I played financial CEO. I handled mileage expenses from my job. I had some medical bills. THREE different medical billing agencies billed me. I had to make sure I didn’t get ripped off and that those were paid. Insurance companies are NO fun. Trust me on that. Also, I combed the Internet, looking around for a lower rate credit card and found one with a zero percent APR for a year. Also, I needed to deposit a money order at the bank. Whew!
Those activities took up a substantial amount of time. Afterward, I felt like I had a clearer financial picture of my money. I don’t think I’ll spend another three hours at one time doing my bills. But I do think I will try to spend about 30 minutes per weekday on my personal finance. The other day, I called my company’s benefit resource center to find out how much pension I would have at retirement.
One way to feel better about your finances is to confront them. Regularly. We spend time with friends, family, hairstylists and coworkers. But do we spend enough time with our money? Our money takes care of us, too.
How much time a week to do you spend on money matters? Is three hours a week too much?
7 Responses to How much time do you spend with your money?
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My money is always on my mind. I think three hours could be a minimum. I setup an account with mint.com so it allows me to easily check on all my accounts in one place. I scan the real estate section to monitor my property value weekly. Money isn’t everything but it will definitely allow me achieve the goals I have set for myself and my family.
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I think 3 hours/week is a good average. Most weeks I spend way less than that (maybe an hour for downloading transactions and paying bills). However, some weeks (such as this past week) are more due to reviewing asset allocation, estimating next year’s tax liability, etc.
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I think this is a great idea. I may not be on board with the whole 3 hours thing but the idea isworking for me. Sometime we gt so busy wih other things that we forget to take out an appropriate amount of time for our finances.
Thanks for this post.
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I think three hours a week sounds right. I get paid on a Thursday, so that Monday, I make of list of bills, which I have made sure to keep in one place. So I probably spend about an hour a week with my money. It may go up to three hours, since I’m starting my spending diary this Thursday.
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Yes, three hours sounds good. But I think it could be cut down to two with proper pro-active management. Know your weekly net income as well as expenses and keep the expenses significantly lower than the income and save the rest. That’s how I do it.
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I probably spend that much time counting change…kidding.
3 hours is about right. Between budgeting at the end of every month, reading financial statements, financial blogs and researching all the fools trying to rip me off, I spend about 3 hours.
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I am probably the extreme. I spend time every day on my finances. I’m check my checking accounts EVERYDAY…always checking to see when payments for bills have cleared. I probably spend the most time on Fridays because at my job our next paycheck is online the Friday before so I can plan out payments. While I was out of town it was actually frustrating for me to not be able to check my accounts because mobile banking is slow and I don’t feel like I’m as on top of my spending if I’m not checking my checking accounts every day.
chic not cheap