How to Overcome Financial Hardships in a Marriage

One of the top ten reasons marriages break up is money problems. It is one of the most common reasons for fights between married couples and is a constant stressor for many couples. You can overcome financial hardships in a marriage without letting it become a huge monster of a problem or a reason for divorce.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Start by not neglecting your spouse and the marriage itself. When communication and intimacy is lacking in a marriage, the fights about other things, like financial hardships, become more frequent. Overcome these fights by nurturing the marriage and your spouse on a regular basis.

2. Keep your eyes open for problems. Instead of being so blissfully happy to be married to the person of your dreams, and ignore the financial hardships or strains in the marriage, overcome this blind spending by beginning, and maintaining, your marriage with a strong grasp of your future goals.

3. Turn a blind eye to who makes more money in the relationship. Whether it is the man or the woman, any amount of money brought into the union by either party is money that you both have a right to claim and discuss. Don't let jealousy or a feeling of superiority get in the way of the marriage and cause financial hardships that you can't overcome.

4. Begin a system where you keep each other in check. You must realize that your debt is not just your own when you are married. Because your debt now affects your spouse, you should have an open door policy for monitoring the spending on all fronts and paying down the debt that you both owe.

5. Create a budget that allows for a bit of spending money for each party. You can call it a weekly allowance, or you can simply split what money is left over after all of the bills are paid, but make sure the allowance is even and fair for each of you.

6. Overcome financial hardships in a marriage by keeping joint, and separate, accounts. Make sure your joint account is used for all mutual bills and expenses, and allow for personal accounts for daily spending cash and personal items.

7. Be brutally honest with your hopes and dreams for the present and future. You should both have a firm grasp of each other's thoughts about money and your budget before any firm decisions are made. After all, in a marriage each of you should have an equal say in what is done with your money.

[woodsusa]

on 12/8/2008 Great tips! And this is sort of unviersal right now...everybody's struggling!