It’s that time of year again…wedding season. According to the Association of Bridal Consultants, nearly 22% of couples tie the knot in July and August. But after the rice is thrown and the cake is gone, couples are left to deal with one of the biggest causes of martial discord: managing their finances. Here are some tips to help you keep the peace:
Understand your differences. It’s not reasonable to assume that just because you tie the knot you all of a sudden become the same person. What you have to do, therefore, is understand HOW you are different, how those differences are going to worry or stress your partner, and keep lines of communications open so that you both understand what is happening with the family pie.
Joint or separate accounts? Try both. There is a school of thought that says the more you merge your money, the more you trust each other and the marriage. I am not completely of that school — quite possibly because I’ve been divorced. I am a big fan of joint AND separate accounts. The way this works best is if you come up with a household budget that the joint account will cover. It must include the amount you want to save for your joint goals (vacation, house, retirement, emergencies). Then figure out what equal percentage of both salaries will cover it, transfer that much in from the separate accounts, and leave the rest. And the bills covered by the joint accounts shouldn’t ALWAYS be paid by the same person. One will gravitate toward these tasks but make sure you switch it up at least once a year.
Financial autonomy is a must. When it comes to my marriage, I need to be able to buy a cup of coffee without checking with him. More…
Starting this week, every Thursday I’ll be dedicating my blog post for the day to answering one of your financial questions. This week’s comes from Patsey in Woodland North Carolina. She writes:
I have a 22 year-old daughter who begins work as a nurse in July. I have recommended the asset allocation (early career in your book The Difference) after she saves up 8 months in expenses in cash or money market fund. Do you have a better recommendation or did I miss the mark?
Answer: In a perfect world, we would all have 8 months in living expenses in the bank. The reality is however, that putting that much in the bank, especially when you’re starting out, can be a daunting task.
Yesterday Karen Blumenthal stopped by my radio show to discuss her new book “The Wall Street Journal Guide to Starting Your Financial Life.” Starting small, Blumenthal says, is a key thing for workforce newbies to remember. “The first paycheck you might have immediate living needs…you don’t want to run up debt. You need to commit some of each paycheck to build that fund. Start with even $25 and then increase it. In every paycheck you should aim for as much as 10%. If you can’t do that right off the bat start with what you can do,” said Blumenthal. More…
When I was pregnant with my first, an older relative asked me when I was planning to stop working. Not if I was planning to stop working. But when. And when I told him I had no intention of stopping — in what may have been a snippy tone as I was put off by the question — he was surprised. We were coming from totally different places. Me, from one of working in a job I was really enjoying (I was at Smart Money at the time). Him from watching every other young woman he knew — even some with law degrees and MBAs — quit work as they entered motherhood. More…
On Today this morning we talked about life’s five biggest crises. If you’re dealing with one of them, see the post below for some advice on how to better your situation.
Are you prepared to handle a financial crisis — 6 out of 10 Americans age 40 to 79 have experienced at least one, according to a new piece of research from AARP financial. What sort of crises? Job loss, divorce death of a spouse or a child, sudden illness. (Personally, at 44, I’ve gone through three.)
Unfortunately, most of us don’t prepared for these crises before hand – and then make some wrong early moves when they actually hit.
Q: How unprepared are we? More…
