As a retired photographer and prolab colour technician, I am not finding the digital process any easier to control than it was in chemical processing days, and I agree with many of the comments made. Namely, unless you want to produce display quality prints I wouldn't bother unduly with calibration, just have the screen look nice. For starters how good is your colour vision and have you ever been tested for colour blindness so that you are even able to make a good subjective evaluation?
And yes, it is a really almost hopeless task with LCD monitors of average availability, one needs a dedicated IPS graphic arts monitor and a profiler such as the Gretag Macbeth sensor unit to gain accuracy in colour management. Even then there are problems because the profile that is created needs to be carried through the entire reproduction chain if prints are going to match monitor images.
This means profiling the monitor, the images themselves, the photo app you are using, the printer, and now that Microsoft have put their oar into all of this, the Windows Colour Management System. Quite a tricky procedure with decisions to be made prior to printing whether or not to allow the printer driver take complete control and undo all of this work. Can printer control even be turned off?
If this procedure is not followed you will find that there are most likely two profiles alternating in this chain - sRGB or Adobe RGB - depending on the manufacturer of the software or hardware. They can successfully fight each other and then your monitor image is rather unlike the print you produce.
To repeat what I said at the beginning, I didn't find it any more difficult using variable chemical systems and if I didn't have a great love for producing photographic art, I wouldn't bother.