Keep both parties informed
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It’s pretty typical in a relationship for one person to handle most of the bill-paying duties. If this is the case for you, be sure that the other party could take over if necessary.
Have a plan in place so that someone else can handle the finances if you’re sick or otherwise unable to. Trust me, you don’t want to be worrying about whether your water bill will go past due while you’re sick, or whether your spouse knows that it’s not paid automatically like the vast majority of your other bills. Be sure that your spouse knows which days you usually pay each monthly bill, how they are paid, when they are actually due, and any other pertinent information.
Provide detailed information. The easiest way to do this is to create a list with the necessary information, and then store that list in a secure location. Because let’s face it, who is really going to remember that the water bill is due on the 24th of each month, but that you pay from account xyz by going to the city’s web site on the 16th of each month, if they aren’t used to doing that each month themselves? And then remember this same type of information for each of the other bills? On the other hand, it’s relatively easy to remember that all of the bill-paying information is in x location.
