How To Talk About Money

Photo by DeebleThere are a countless many pitfalls that are potential in your relationship, but little things can cause friction or hard feelings like money and your relationship.  This is why it is a good idea to talk frequently about money and your relationship with your partner and discuss how one affects the other.  There are many things to discuss that will affect your relationship, but money will affect you in many profound ways.

Here are a few things you should consider with money and your relationship:

1.  Who is the spender and who is the saver in the relationship?  Money and your relationship will not get along if both are one or both are the other.  Most relationships must have a spender and a saver to be happy and content.

2.  How will you divvy up the money in your relationship?  Will everything go into a common pot and pay bills first before having fun?  Will you each have separate accounts to pay your own bills?  You can’t get anywhere in your relationship until you decide this.

3.  Decide how much of your budget is left over every month to have a little fun with, cut it in half and each person can have as much fun as is possible with this money.  This may sound silly or wasteful, but if you don’t have fun with the money you are earning you will never truly live.

4. Set realistic goals for saving and spending.

5.  Start a budget so you see exactly what comes in each month and what goes out that way you know where all the money goes.

6. Make an agreement for a dollar amount that can be spent on personal purchases without needing a discussion such as in increments of $100.00. For                                                                      example, you could decide that anything you want to purchase that is under $200.00 is okay without first discussing the purchase with each other.

7. Start a vision board with money goals and purchases that are important to you in the next 5 years…. then come up with a spending plan for achieving                                                                    these goals together.

It is always much more fun to work together towards your money goals for saving and spending. Be a team and make the plan together while coming up with creative ideas for getting to your goals. Then celebrate each year your accomplishments as you see how close you are to getting what you truly desire.