To better understand which tasks were consuming my non-working hours, I tracked everything I did in my off hours for one month.
I was shocked to learn how much time I spent managing my family’s finances.
Coming to terms with the size of the workload helps me take pride in it—and recognize its value to my family.
A few months ago, I was feeling too busy, and I wanted to know why. I knew how many hours I was giving to work each day, but where exactly were my non-working hours going? I decided to track everything I did in my weekday off hours for one month. My most surprising finding? How much time I spent managing my family’s finances.
It’s an important but hidden role
Tracking my weekday off hours confirmed some things I already knew. For example, I knew I was spending a lot of time shuttling my three school-age kids around. I also knew that housekeeping, meal planning, and grocery shopping were taking up big chunks of time, too. But I didn’t realize how much time I was spending on my family’s financial health.
It’s not that I didn’t realize I was the one paying the mortgage or monitoring the checking account. It’s that I somehow lacked a conscious understanding of how much time these tasks collectively took — until I tallied up the hours.
I tracked my activities during my weekday off hours in 15-minute increments. At the end of the month, which was not unusual in any way, I tallied 16 hours of financial work. This means I was spending about 10% of my off-hours managing my family’s finances. I checked the math three times before I could believe it.
These tasks add up
How could I be so unaware of how much time I was spending on my family’s financial health? One reason is that the work consists of countless small tasks: removing a duplicate credit card charge, tracking down the beneficiary form for an old 401(k), comparing insurance premiums. These tasks undoubtedly add up, but they are also hard to tally mentally.
Another reason I didn’t realize how much time I was giving to my family’s financial health is that I usually do the work alone. I break down our monthly spending alone. I check the balances on our investment accounts alone. No one else ever really sees the financial work I do for my family, so perhaps it was easy for me to not really see it either.
Understanding the amount of work was bittersweet
Getting my head around how much time I devote to managing my family’s finances was bittersweet. What if I’d spent those 16 hours exercising that month? Or hanging out with friends? Time is precious, and I was giving more of it than I realized to our finances.
But at the same time, discovering the true size of the job gave it a kind of gravity, or importance, that helps me take pride in the work. Yes, managing our finances takes real time—but that’s because it matters. Even the busy work matters.
When I look at the list of things I did that month to improve my family’s financial health, I see tracking, evaluating, forecasting — the work of a CFO. So that’s what I call myself now: my family’s CFO. I hope readers who are doing this often-invisible but meaningful work for their own families will start running with this title, too.
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