I want to thank Angelita Williams for contributing this guest post. Although sharing financial responsibility with your spouse is a huge part of a successful marriage, it is an aspect far too often overlooked. Angelita’s guidelines will not only help your finances; they will help your marriage.
Did you know that, despite what many divorced couples say caused their relationship to fail, the presence of financial problems in a marriage is one of the top predictors of impending separation and divorce? According to the National Healthy Marriage Resource Center, many divorced couples rarely blamed financial troubles for the divorce; however, studies that tracked married couples for many years show that those couples who mentioned having financial troubles were far more likely to divorce than couples who listed having other problems.
So, why is this important to you? After all, many of you strongly believe in the power of marriage. You and your spouse probably share comfort, joy, and faith, but how many of you share financial responsibility? If you already managing your finances together, congratulations! According to Smart Money, you join 70% of couples who talk about money on a weekly basis. However, If you don’t, consider starting now. Sharing sharing financial responsibility in your marriage is just as important as sharing joy.
Don’t know where to start? Here are four steps to help you share financial responsibility with your spouse:
1. Communicate
The first step to sharing the financial responsibilities with your spouse is talking about your family’s financial situation. Sit down with your spouse and talk about the basics of your financial plan: go over your investments, your long-term goals, your monthly budgets, your savings and checking accounts, your credit cards, and so on. Once you both establish the situation and can agree on a financial plan, you can set up weekly or bi-weekly chats to track your status. These chats don’t need to be long affairs; the important thing is that you both are communicating about your money and share the same financial goals.
2. Collaborate
After you’ve talked, you have to follow through. Although you’re both aware of the situation, some actions need to occur in order to help your finances improve. Rather than placing the entire burden on you or your spouse, share the responsibility. If your spouse balances the checkbook, then you should consider managing the budget. If you manage your investments, then ask your spouse to pay the bills. Or, you can also split up the duties evenly. Remember, a little goes a long way here: simply keeping all of your receipts organized can be enough to limit the hassle that your spouse has to deal with when he or she tries to balance the checkbook.
3. Concentrate
If this is a new routine for you, then it will take some getting used to, especially if you’re trying to shift from having only one person manage the family finances. Each week you’ll have to concentrate on your financial goals. It’s not enough to think that the other person can always pick up the slack should you fall behind in your responsibilities. You will have to concentrate in order to maintain your end of the bargain. Some couples might find it helpful to set up some accountability system between them, but be sure to approach it in a positive way! Your weekly or bi-weekly discussions can help keep you both focused.
4. Celebrate
Once sharing the responsibility becomes second nature to you and your spouse, you should celebrate. After all, you’ve taken an important step to ensuring the financial well-being of your family, especially if you’re hoping to grow your family in the future. Treat yourself to a nice dinner and then get back to work!
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online college courses. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.
Readers: how well do you and your spouse share financial responsibilities? What works for you? What doesn’t work? What further tips can you share with other readers?
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Great post Angelita! I think this is one of the most overlooked areas in both personal finance and in marriage. When you agree on your spending you agree on your dreams, and your goals, and your fears. That’s a vital connection in a marriage and ensures you’re both working together towards the same thing.
Thanks for the tips for getting started too!
Hi Angela!
Great job with the article. My wife and I have a routine that splits the ‘big’ picture responsibilities and ‘little’ picture responsibilities between us. She usually takes care of the weekly budget (with help from mint.com
and I usually take care of the big picture items.
Both pictures are very important (the little picture -budget- especially)! At the end of the month, we usually sit together and discuss the ‘balance sheet’ or shapshot of how our finances played out and how our savings is looking.
Tim
Being married for only 2 years I can say communication is the fundamental key to working on financial matters with your spouse. The others are important as well. I am glad I stumbled upon your post, I like the site keep it up!
James´s last [type] ..Cash Advance as a Small Business Loans
So true. I only wish that I’d read this before I’d gotten married as the number of mistakes I’ve (we’ve) made is comical. More often than not its gotten into a squabbling match about who spent what and where and whose fault it is. Sigh. I can very well understand how and why money is a leading cause of breakups in marriages.
HeadSpace´s last [type] ..The Whys and Wherefores
Though my marriage is doing well but just due to financial sharing things were not in place. Trust me constant communication has helped us to reduce our debts and control out expenses.
It’s sad that a lot of couples don’t appreciate the benefits of sharing financial lives. Usually one spouse or the other is in full control. It may work for them. Yet it could be better to do it together. Believe me it’s taken years to get my spouse to merge finances. You have to keep trying. Though its not perfect there still is much to do.
Dave@50plusfinance´s last [type] ..A Horse Named Government
This is something that we’ll need to work on more now that we will be sharing a condo together! Time to start melding some of the finances together.