A study by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College found that households in which someone thought "a lot" about retirement had twice as much wealth heading into retirement as households in which there was little or no planning.

Similarly, research for "The Millionaire Next Door" by Richard Tyson, revealed that more high-wealth accumulators say they spend "a lot" of time planning their financial future, and place the management of their assets before other activities. In this case, "a lot" means 8.4 hours per month, or just about two hours a week.
Income differences alone have little to do with disparities in wealth.

"You shouldn't spend your time checking stock prices constantly. That's just not productive," says Tyson, who observes that the tendency to incessantly track portfolio performance is more common in our 24/7 news coverage atmosphere. Instead, he suggests spending your hours researching and learning how to invest, even if you hire a financial adviser.

"How are you going to make good choices about hiring a professional if you don't educate yourself [about what to look for and how to judge performance]?" asks Tyson.

Investors also will need to spend some time monitoring the performance of their investments and reallocating their portfolio if necessary.

Tyson also says it's good to try to learn to do your own taxes, even if you have a tax preparer do the work, because "it helps you learn about the system and take advantage of incentives and tax breaks."

If you haven't done so already, spend a few of your first money management hours calculating your net worth. Your net worth is the value of all your assets minus all your liabilities. It's the best snapshot of your wealth-building progress. Your net worth work sheet is something you'll update annually.

Some other basic tasks to start with include tracking expenses for one to three months, designing a spending plan (also known as a budget), and writing down your short-, medium-, and long-term financial goals.