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How To Understand Your Spouse’s Views On Money

Lesley-Anne Scorgie is the founder of MeVest, a money school helping North Americans reach their financial potential. She’s also the bestselling author of Modern Couple’s Money Guide, Well-Heeled and Rich By Thirty. Follow her @LesleyScorgie

What causes trouble in paradise isn’t who picked up their socks or took out the trash (though those things can be annoying too). It’s money; how it’s spent, saved, invested and given.

According to Capital One, 8 in 10 couples fight about money and nearly half feel their partner’s attitude towards money is different from their own. Monetary philosophies are deeply rooted in a person’s values, thus financial compatibility is as important as personality. “Money problems” are cited as a leading cause of divorce and are rarely about money. They’re representations of issues like independence, greed, trust, respect, and commitment.

Take for example a couple where one partner is a compulsive spender and the other is a saver. The saver is bound to feel like their honey is putting the couple’s dreams for the future in jeopardy just to keep up with the latest and greatest cars, clothes, shoes, home décor and more.

Meanwhile the spender has a YOLO attitude and thinks their penny pinching partner is a cheapskate.

How To Understand Your Spouse and Their Views On Money

In this scenario financial brawls are inevitable unless the couple learns to bridge their financial gaps by understanding your spouse and where their views on money came from and by working together towards common financial goals.

Play As A Team

Teamwork and financial boundaries are critical when planning your future with someone. Though you may not like to deal with financial matters, it’s irresponsible to ignore them. Consider the task of checking-up on your finances like regular maintenance on your car. If you care for your vehicle, it will run smoothly and for longer than if you neglect it. You don’t want to find yourself in a bad financial position you weren’t aware you were creating.

Financial ‘chores’ like paying bills, and buying stocks should be shared equally and each partner should be able to perform EVERY financial chore. Just imagine the chaos if your partner got hit by a bus and was in a coma for a month. What would happen if your mortgage was up for renewal or you needed to pay your VISA bill? Would you be equipped to handle those tasks?

The team approach is also necessary to build wealth, which requires couples to play the exact same game that wealthy people play – to keep what they’ve worked so hard to earn.

Budget

The tool that governs the financial boundaries any couple sets in their relationship is a mutually agreed upon budget. It allows you to spend less time worrying about money, and more time on your relationship. And, rather than being restrictive, you can incorporate affordable fun.

Get comfy with your partner, pull up a spreadsheet and identify all sources of income: employment, government support, your “side-hustle” (no, this isn’t dealing meth, it’s a second source of income). Move on and list expenses like mortgage payments, school fees and car loans. Don’t overlook smaller purchases like coffee and banking fees. If you can’t figure out where your money’s going, keep ALL receipts for four weeks; then review. Determine what’s left over – subtract expenses from income. If you’re short, cut back. If you’ve got a surplus, congratulations; you need to save more.

Is Starting a Family Financially Feasible?

by Hank Coleman

Can You Afford The Cost Of Starting a Family?

Is the cost of starting a family financially feasible? Should the cost of starting a family even factor into your family planning and decisions?

Do you have a spare $245,340 lying around? Probably not, and you don’t need it all upfront, but this is the new estimated cost of raising a child from birth until 18 years of age in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

When accounting for inflation for the next 18 years, it will eventually cost about $304,480 for the average American family to raise just one child. This figure includes birthing costs, education, food, housing, and some activities, but it doesn’t include college costs, which are estimated to be $18,390 for a bachelor’s degree at a public university later on.

These costs vary depending on which area of the country you live in, what your family income is, and how frugal your lifestyle is, but in most cases, you can expect to pay a minimum of $11,000 per year for your child’s first 18 years of life.

Can You Afford The Cost Of Starting a Family Of Your Own?

If you’re thinking of starting a family or want to add another child to your growing nest, it’s important to look at the financial implications as well as the emotional ones. As the Pew Research Center points out, finances are a major concern for parents in America and the affordability factor strongly influences people’s decisions to have kids. Millions of babies are born each year, so it’s not an impossible dream, but this baby-readiness guide will help you determine whether it’s financial feasible to add a child to your family.

Pregnancy & Delivery or Adoption

Pregnancy and delivery fees vary widely, depending on your insurance coverage, possible complications, and whether a C-section is required for the birth. If you have excellent health insurance or qualify for Medicaid, your prenatal care and delivery expenses will be minimal, but folks without insurance can expect to pay between $30,000 and $50,000. The choice of hospital plays a role in your delivery costs as well, according to a study from the University of California at San Francisco.

Book Review – Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance by Tim Maurer

by Hank Coleman

Personal finance shouldn’t be hard. We tend to make it harder than it needs to be. We get scared to make a decision for fear that we will do something wrong and make irrevocable errors.

In “Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance” by Tim Maurer, the author breaks personal finance down into its simplest form. Tim Maurer walks the reader through his or her personal finance choices. The book makes people look at the “why” of their personal finances and money decisions.

Why do we make the financial choices that we make? What motivates us to spend or save money? These questions and much more are discussed in detail in the book.

Tim Maurer makes a statement in the beginning on the book that is very poignant. He says, “Personal finance is more personal than finance.” And, a truer statement has never been said. It is personal, and that’s what “Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance” is all about.

What choices are you making and why? What choices should you make about your finances and why? Tim Maurer breaks it down in clear, easy to read and practical advice.

Simple Money: A No-Nonsense Guide to Personal Finance Price: $10.87 Full Disclosure: We earn a commission if you click this link and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Last Updated: 10/24/2018

Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance

Many personal finance books try to teach you about money. Other books look to help you find your purpose and how money fits into that goal. It’s rare that a book tackles both and tackles them well. Dave Ramsey’s “The Total Money Makeover” is one. And, Tim Maurer’s book, Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance is another.

I can see many similarities between the two books and their philosophies. So, if you like Dave Ramsey, I think that you will really enjoy “Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance”.

The Five Parts of “Simple Money”

“Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance” is broken down into five sections that make this book a great tool for people looking to take control over their finances.

Part 1 – Planning for Life

Part 2 – Planning for Today

Part 3 – Planning for the Inevitable

Part 4 – Planning for the Unexpected

Part 5 – Planning for Action

Part 1 – Planning for Life

Not only is Simple Money – A No Nonsense Guide To Personal Finance easy to read, but it also has great graphs, charts, and illustrations to make the point hit home with the reader.

Part one is a great opening to the book that sets the stage. It walks the readers through goal setting and how to accomplish some of the many financial tasks that you will find throughout the book. Like Dave Ramsey’s book, you’ll also find chapters in this section that talk about your values and your life’s calling and how they intertwine into your finances.

Part 2 – Planning for Today

Part two talks about where you currently stand. It discusses your current financial situation and asks you to take a good, hard look at your finances. You have to know where you are starting from in order to improve.

How much debt to you have? What are the different types of debt that you have? How much are you investing? Do you have your financial priorities straight?

These are all things that you will find in this section. It sets that stage and gets the ball rolling for the rest of the book and the tools and techniques that you will need to implement.

How Realistic Is The Cash Only Lifestyle?

by Guest Contributor

The following is a guest post by Steve Repak, CFP™. Steve is the author of “6 Week Money Challenge For Your Personal Finances“, a simple, step-by-step program founded on biblical principles paired with a CFP®’s understanding of modern wealth-management strategies.

How realistic is the cash only lifestyle? If you are in debt, you have probably heard over and over again that you should quit using credit cards and stick to cash only purchases.

In a previous article, I explained that for some people it actually hurts to break a large bill like a $20 so only using cash may help you get your spending under control. I wanted to share some of the risks and benefits of a cash only lifestyle and also show that you can still get out of debt if you want to use credit cards. If getting out of debt is your goal, there are three things you must do in order to succeed regardless of whether you use cash or credit:

Spend less money than you take home each week
Build an emergency savings
Develop and follow a get-out-of-debt plan

How Realistic Is The Cash Only Lifestyle?

Cons of using cash

One of the biggest disadvantages of carrying cash is that you can lose it! If you lose your credit card you can cancel it and order a new one but I am afraid you just can’t do that if you lose your cash.

If you use an ATM to withdraw cash you may be charged fees, which is like throwing money away. Worse yet, flashing cash can make you a target for thieves.

Top 7 Easy Fixes to Reduce Your Monthly Expenses

by Hank Coleman

The slumping economy has households looking for ways to cut back on monthly expenses. Lowering your monthly costs can also be a great way to put more money aside into savings. There are a number of things that you can do to minimize your spending without changing your current lifestyle.

Easy Fixes to Reduce Your Monthly Expenses

Brown Bag Lunch

If you or your partner spends money on costly meals for lunch, you can brown bag it instead. Cutting back on eating out can help save a significant amount of money weekly. You can also curb your spending by limiting lunches out to once a week.

The money that you save on packing your own goodies can go into a savings jar. As you fill the container up, have a family meeting to decide how you want to spend the money.

Home Costs

Spending money on rent can be wasteful. Interest rates are currently at record lows. If you’re looking for a home, there are a number of financing options available to help you with your purchase.

If you’re looking to make repairs on a current dwelling, go with a home renovation loan. Before you secure your financing, consult with a real estate agent. They’ll be able to determine which improvements can boost the value of your home.

Look Over Your Current Bills

Take a look at your current bills. Decide on the items that seem to be unnecessary and which ones are important. If you see luxury items such as movie rentals, cosmetics, and smartphone apps, cancel your services.

How to Help Your Spouse Who Is Terrible with Money Management

by Hank Coleman

The old relationship adage goes, “Opposites attract.” This generally isn’t a problem unless you and your spouse or partner are on completely opposite sides of the financial savvy spectrum. But, do you know how to help a spouse or partner that is terrible with money?

Money is a major cause of stress in relationships, and if you are always on top of your finances while your spouse is more forgetful or lax about money, then you might hit some bumps on the road to financial stability as a couple.

If you want to maintain a good relationship and reduce frustration with a spouse who may not share your values when it comes to financial responsibility, then here are a few ways you can help them with money management. (To keep it simple, we’ll refer to boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, and wives as simply “partners” from here on out.)

How to Help Your Spouse Who’s Terrible with Money

Lay Out Your Financial Situation

Are you the one controlling the finances in your relationship? If so, then it’s time that both sides get up to speed with your shared finances. Because oftentimes, financial irresponsibility stems from an ignorance of the reality of your situation, rather than a malicious desire to squander your family’s hard-earned money.

Take an hour or two and lay out your finances on a table – budget records, utility bills, credit card payments, mortgage or rent and car payments, receipts, etc. And, go over everything with your partner. If they’re not particularly excited to talk about something as seemingly dull as finances, then make some coffee or drinks or snacks and take it slowly to make it a more bearable experience.

Keep it straightforward and objective. They’re less likely to feel defensive and want to leave if you avoid blaming them for a budget misstep or bad impulse purchase they made recently. And, at the end, you might assign them small tasks to help you manage your collective finances together.

No matter what – you have to be on the same page when it comes to your family’s finances. That’s how you help a spouse who is terrible with money. My wife and I go over our budget and net worth once a quarter. We sit down and have a family meeting to discuss the finances of our family.