On Thursdays, I share my thoughts on Family Finances.
No Time Budget would be complete without a financial element! Since I'm responsible for our family's day to day finances, I need to allot time each week towards making sure the "family business" is running smoothly.
In our family, we have a nice "division of labor" when it comes to financial issues. My husband handles most of the long term issues such as investments, retirement accounts, taxes and insurance.
It's my job to ensure that our bills are paid on time, our accounts are in balance, and we are saving sufficiently.
The family finance portion of my Time Budget includes paying bills online and via the mail, banking - both online and in person for deposits, and regular monitoring of our credit history. To help me keep on top of some of these tasks, I have scheduled regular alerts on my Google Calendar for specific days of the month.
What tasks fall into the Family Finances area of your Time Budget? What tasks do you tend to forget or neglect in this arena?
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"In our family, we have a nice "division of labor" when it comes to financial issues. My husband handles most of the long term issues such as investments, retirement accounts, taxes and insurance."
Consider yourself extremely fortunate to have that division of labor that you speak of, and I must say that you both have that worked out well. I see so many situations where it may be a single parent who just can't seem to handle it all, and gets into trouble quickly. Also, I find other couples who just cannot seem to manage money at all. They don't prepare a budget and stick to it, and are more concerned with the present. They almost always tend to be impulse shoppers and have maxed out credit cards and bank equity lines of credit. Then, to make matters worse, they read ads on the internet telling them how easy and cheap it is to file bankruptcy, and rid themselves of all that debt. Sometimes I wish that I were a plumber! ( Just kidding)
Posted by: Gust | October 26, 2008 at 01:12 PM