Good luck to everyone and I hope all of you can be in the same place I am in. Keep the faith.

I love streamlining and automating– in every aspect of my life, so that I have the time to spend on the important stuff . . .

I am not sure what kind of rock bottom my husband would have had to hit before he would have started to turn his finances around, but it took getting married to me and having me track everything to get him “on the wagon” so to speak. Don’t get me wrong, we were BOTH far, far off the wagon.

So for anyone reading this that feels that same way, hang in there and just DO SOMETHING, one little thing, every month.

Here was my baby steps which I started in 2007, but there are MANY paths to success.

Month 1: Make our main accounts joint and record the combined amounts of assets, debts, list all basic monthly bills. Set up a place to keep track of these amounts.

Month 2: Decide how much excess money we could contribute to our debts, and start paying it towards our highest rate credit card (just pick a place any place). This number gets refined a lot, but you have to start somewhere!

Month 3: Automate bills (this actually took MONTHS to complete). I couldn’t believe how much a load off of my mind this one step accomplished. I went one step further and used a separate checking account from our regular one for JUST bills, so everything left in our main checking account was our discretionary spending.

Month 4: Analyze and implement a more comprehensive debt payoff strategy. Used previous month history to estimate other monthly expenses like gas, groceries, etc. Added to my spreadsheet from Month 1 to calculate $ going in vs $ going out. In our case we were spending about 700 more than our income brought in each month. Continually work to keep that number positive by adjusting your spending.

Month 5: Set up an online bank account and a small transfer each payday (one for long term emergency fund, and one for short term expected things like gifts, holidays, car repairs). Never mind if this amount doesn’t really cover it, just get it started!

Month 6+: From here on out we just took it month by month and figured out what our next priority might be. Increasing our savings, long term financial goals,college savings plans, 401K contributions, saving money in a certain area whatever the case may be and tackle it one at a time!

I also started an every 2 week meeting where my husband and I could cover financial stuff. I was driving him crazy by talking about it 24×7 so it was a good solution. I knew I could let it go the rest of the week because I would get my chance to get his input and talk during that meeting.

So anyways, sorry for the long post, but I think even the comments on a post like this can intimidate people sometimes.

@SpriteMV: It’s personal preference. I’d rather login from one location and spend a minute or two adjusting amounts. Plus some companies like mortgages, insurance, and others charge a fee ranging from $5-15.

Plus if you sent it out from your side you don’t have to worry about a company withdrawing the wrong amount and you have to wait until its resolved to get your money back.

The first paragraph says it all, realistic and simple; two keys to creating and sticking to your budget.

The comment by savvy is a bit telling. So many people define budgeting as expense tracking that some folks, like savvy apparently, seem to think they’re “reverse budgeting” by planning first and then tracking expenses. I contend that savvy is doing it the most effective way.

We could disagree all day on whether expense tracking or budgeting should come first but the important part is that you do both; have a plan (budget) and monitor your adherence to it (expense tracking).

Again, great post. In this day and age, there can’t be too many posts underlining the need for budgeting!

Financial automation is the way everyone will be managing their money soon — it’s such a time saver and you don’t have to worry about remembering to pay the bill, save for the future, or invest for retirement.

Rather, we track our spending very closely (thanks Mint.com!) and then check monthly to make sure our spending is roughly in line with our goals and priorities.

Perhaps that’s a somewhat lazy system, but it works as long as you’re paying yourself first and living off the rest.

All of my bills accept either credit card or electronic payments if I log into each company’s website (are they really any that don’t offer this service anymore?). Isn’t it easier to configure the automatic payments from the company’s site, rather than your bank’s site, so you don’t even have to log in to enter an amount?

The only value I see for online BillPay is the ability to mail physical checks to friends/relatives/landlords who obviously don’t accept online payments (which is actually really nice).