I'm using Google Calendar to pay my bills on time.

Here's a quick and dirty tip for those of us who are known to "forget" about bills. I used to be one of these people myself. I literally had a stack of bills piled on my computer desk, and absolutely no organizational system to get them paid on time.

Here is my new system, and since I started it, I have not had one late bill, and I am right on top of what is due, and when it is due. This is one of the most popular "Web 2.0" apps on the planet.

Google Calendar is an absolutely free application, all it requires is an account with Google, which is very simple to setup. If you have a Gmail account, you already have calandar, now put it to work!

Here's what I do..

When bills come in the mail, I open them up, then fire up Google calendar. I setup an event for each bill that is due. If the bill is paid on the same day every month, then I setup a repeat monthly event, and that will save a little time.

I list the event as the companies name, followed by the amount due. For example Geico, $100.

I then set a reminder to email me a week before the bill is due. Google makes it really simple to set this up. You can do whatever a reminder that you require. You can even have Google send you a SMS text message on your mobile phone saying "time to pay your bill".

I then pay the bill, and update calendar's title with the word paid.

It's simple, now you try!

calendar.google.com