#1. How much time should you spend on your finances?

Hmmm. I read an interesting book once called The Millionaire Next Door, in which two professors studied the characteristics of true millionaires (people with one million dollars in wealth vs those who have high incomes but spend it all). One of the most interesting commonalities was the amount of time they spent on their money. They spent tons more time budgeting, tracking and planing than than the average "non millionaire."

My goal may not be to make a million, but I think there is truth to the need to spend adequate time on managing what we've been blessed with. The more time I spend in planning our menus, the less money we spend on food and the better we eat. The same it true for our house; the more time and effort we put into keeping it nice, the more we will enjoy it and the better return we will have one our investment.

The tricky part is not going too far the other way. Money can easily become an obsession. So, how much time should be spent on finances? Whatever is necessary to accomplish security and mastery over principles that bring happiness. For us right now, that means a weekly accounting (literal and figurative) of all of our expenses and review of how well we're sticking to the budget we set at the beginning of the month. At other times, we've only had to sit down once a month to set our budget, pay all of our bills. And, unfortunatley, there have been times when we've ignored or spent too little time on our finances because it all felt like a hopeless cause (this only lasts a little while because the stress of not knowing exactly where we stand kills me and I'd much rather have the whole picture, even if feels bleak.)

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's better to know where we are so that we can figure out how to get where we want to be. I know that we've been blessed when we adhere to this--in things far beyond financial...

What do you think. How do you do it? How do you keep from going too far the other way.