Oooohhhh this one is a doozie! Marriage is a union, an institution where a man and woman come together in Holy matrimony to join their lives together, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health. Unfortunately, it looks like that’s where it stops. When it comes to money and finance, there seems to be a different arrangement and some couples have it really bad! We’ve seen and heard a lot of reasons why its my money, your money, my debt, your debt, your bill, my bill etc. We’ve also seen secret money, run away money, vex money, stash money all sorts of creative financial maneuvers amongst couples.

Here is the long and short of it. It is important to tackle your marital finance the way you would on the pillar of trust and communication. Love has nothing to do with it. This is one brick in the foundation where both of you have to be willing to show some maturity and to prove to each other that not only do you have each other’s backs in life, but financially as well. Both of you are in this together. The bills, debts, planning, the savings and so on. This of course are just the broad-brush stroke which sets the tone of how you deal with finances.

Here are some starting points to the conversation that you both can sit down together to get this financial conversation going:

1. Have you ever sat with a financial adviser and take a deep dive into your financial health? We go to the doctor and check up when we are sick, we take our cars to the mechanic for repairs and maintenance, what about your finances?

• 2. Do you know how much money your significant other make?
• 3. Have you done a debt analysis?
  Do you know much debt that the other spouse brought into the marriage?
  How much money is going out (expenses)?
• 4.Are you falling short each month to meet your obligations?
• 5. Is one spouse irresponsible with money?
• 6.Should you take over the budgeting instead of the one who is handling it?
• 7. Those pesky credit cards do you have a handle on it?
• 8. What about retirement?
• 8. We do a lot here to open up your eyes to these things and you will be better off for it. Do not be caught unprepared to deal with your finance. Worst case is that there is a divorce or if one partner died God Forbid! . You deserve to be stable and with some small tweaks here and there, it can have a huge positive impact on your family’s future. Finance is important!
• We have a whole session plan out for spring this year on finance. If you can use some ideas here, join us, these sessions are really informative you do learn a lot!