Keeping Marriage and Finances on Track Together
photo credit: orangeacid
The NY Times has an interesting take on one way to help make your marriage last: marry someone who’s financially compatible to you. Or try and become financially compatible by following these tips:
- Talk openly about a savings philosophy and agree (or make a compromise) on it. Then get serious about your family approach to money - some recommend holding a weekly meeting to check on the finance situation
- Support your partner’s career so that both partners can be earning when the stage in life is appropriate
- Rotate responsibility for different aspects of your finances - don’t have one person responsible for everything, all the time
- Agree on how much money you can spend for enjoyment and luxuries and still be financially sustainable
- If things get rough, use a mediator (who might be a financial planner) to agree on a new money philosophy
- Make sure each partner still has some money that is slightly “independent” - that they can spend for themselves, how they want
- “Invest in your marriage” by going on dates and planning holidays - this investment in your relationship might cost a little money, but it’s worth it in the long run. Apart from the obvious distress of a relationship break-up, divorce is also an expensive business and it can quite often be avoided with a little more care earlier on.
This entry was posted on Sunday, October 5th, 2008 at 5:09 am and is filed under Kids and Family. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
