Whether you’ve been married for 5 years or 5 months, finances have a nasty habit of causing friction between couples. In fact, money is the leading cause of relationship issues and can often lead to more serious consequences such as separation or divorce. Much like couples that take great care in improving and maintaining a healthy level of communication, those that work together on their finances – no matter if they keep them separate or not – find themselves more content in their relationship as well as more excited for the future. No matter your current financial situation with your significant other, here are some helpful tips on how to manage your finances with your spouse that can apply to anyone:
Be Honest With Your Significant Other About Your Financial Situation
As you would hope they’d do for you, it’s important that you disclose your financial status to your significant other – especially if you’re engaged to be married. Yes, this also includes any embarrassing information such as a low credit score, credit card debt, or anything else that would be important for them to know! You can make overcoming these obstacles a joint venture that can ultimately bring you both closer together. Hiding or not disclosing financial information from your significant other breeds distrust and can make it difficult to move forward in your relationship.
Manage Finances With Your Spouse in a Mutually-Accessible Way
There are countless ways to accomplish this to suit your particular needs – from utilizing a budgeting spreadsheet template, or signing up for a budget tracker app like Mint, having your finances out in the open will help keep everyone on the same page in terms of transactions, upcoming bills, and overall financial status. This also allows the responsibility of handling finances to be equally distributed instead of solely held to one person alone. If only one person has a handle on the finances, they may feel resentment towards the other for the additional responsibility, while the other may feel like they aren’t trusted.
Establish Savings Goals, and Work Together to Accomplish Them
Every couple has dreams – a new home, a tropical vacation, repairing the fence, a new pet – all things that need to be adequately budgeted and planned for. A great way to grow together as a couple is to jointly work towards these goals – and you can do this in a number of ways. Some couples pool any leftover cash or change from the day into a communal pot to passively safe income towards a goal, while others dedicate a certain percentage of their income (such as 5% per paycheck) to be directly deposited to a joint savings account. If you choose to invest your savings, Eastex Credit Union has a great savings calculator that can help you forecast your wealth growth as well.
Eastex wants to see financial success not only for you but for you and your spouse jointly! Having open and honest communication in your relationship extends to your finances, so creating a financial strategy that works for both of you can drastically improve the quality of your relationship. For assistance in opening up a checking or savings account, adding a new credit card, or for personalized assistance to manage finances with your spouse, contact Eastex today.
