How To Manage Money As A Couple

Many marriages end because of reasons related to money. Learning about how to manage money as a couple will help you to resolve conflicts around finances more easily in your marriage.

Before continuing, I must put in a disclaimer. I am a psychologist but not a licensed financial planner or consultant. What I write here is based upon over twenty years of professional experience as a family therapist. There are no guarantees, real or implied, in this article to suggest that following any of these recommendations will lead to you accruing greater financial wealth.

 Key To Manage Money Is Honesty

In a marriage it is vital to be curious and open to know each other.  In fact by noticing the differences between us and our partner we come to know ourselves better.

How we spend and how we save money can be vastly different from one another.  These are almost habits that are closely related to our past experiences in our families and can arouse strong emotions.

Through sincere in-depth conversations we learn each other’s weaknesses, fears, dreams and goals about money.  Understanding each other will help to heal old wounds and, over time, gradually evolve into a relatively common healthy system to manage money.

Your System To Manage Money Will Be Unique

Since every couple is different, each will have to develop a system to manage money that suits them best.

One method is to have a joint bank account partners both contribute to on a monthly basis to pay for all household bills; and two separate, personal accounts, which after their monthly contributions leaves them with their own money to do what they like with. They also plan long-term financial goals together and manage high expenditures such as property, cars and vacations together.

Others combine all their money in one pot and spend from a common account, (not recommended).

There might be other combinations, especially if there is a family business to take into consideration.

General Rules To Organise Your  System To Manage Money

Even though we are all unique as individuals and couples, there are certain rules to stick to when creating a system to manage money that works for you:

1) It is vital to have a monthly and yearly budget and live within it.  Visualizing and planning is the first step of every manifestation.  You need to set up 3, 6 and 12 month financial goals and work out a plan to reach those goals. This may be more difficult to achieve than it sounds.  But you should find ways to do it. Each partner should be interested and know how much money they get, and where the money is being spent.

2) Communicate regularly about your finances weekly or monthly with figures on the table to monitor the spending, the current debt load and the progress of financial goals.

3) It is advisable that each partner should have a monthly allowance they agree which they can spend without having to share every purchase detail with each other. The amount should be satisfactory for both of them.

4) Include retirement plans in your budget.

5) Save a percentage of your income for financial emergencies or upcoming expenses, and another percentage for charity.

6) Resolving conflicts about money is not any different than resolving any other conflicts. When you approach it well you will slowly grow closer to each other.

Abundance flows in your life when you focus on serving rather than accumulating staff, which is greed.   Approach your work and any activity you do like a worship by putting your heart and soul in it.

Building a system to manage money for you requires honesty, effort and input from both of you.  Give yourselves time and continue communicating even if the arising emotions become uncomfortable.   Managing to work together on finances is an important step to create more harmony at other aspects of your relationship.  More harmony means more miracles together.

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