How to Keep Finances From Ruining Your Marriage

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By TandLMommy28
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Fighting over money is the #1 cause of divorce these days. Want to protect your marriage from financial disaster? It's not as hard as you might think.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Monthly budget meetings

Step 1

Stop thinking of it as "my money" and "your money." This is the most important step. If you can't get past this step, don't both reading the rest of this article. If you want to stop fighting over money and you want to be headed in one direction financially, it has got to be "our money." Period. You are married and legally the money belongs to both of you anyway.
Step 2

Forget the idea that the one who earns the money gets to call the shots. Creating a budget each month needs to be a team effort. Even if one person is better with numbers and actually writes the budget, both people need to sit down together and agree on the budget and edit it if necessary.
Step 3

Create a budget. Yes, you need one. It doesn't matter if you are making $20 or $200K. You still need a budget. Budgets have a bad rep but really, it just means that you know where all of your money is going each month. It means you decide ahead of time that you are going to put a certain amount in savings, or that you can go out to eat a certain amount of times that month. A budget does not mean you are living like a pauper. Just the opposite - by deciding ahead of time how your money will be spent for the month, you will probably find you have more money than you thought!
Step 4

Stick to your budget. If changes need to be made by either person, they need to check in with their spouse about it. You agreed on your budget together and if you need to change it, you need to agree together!
Step 5

Enjoy the peace in your home. Imagine the fights that won't happen when you spend $150 on new clothes for the kids - because you decided with your husband last month that you were going to spend that money. And husbands, imagine coming home with two new video games without your wife nagging you because you agreed during your budget meeting that you could buy those games! No more fights over spending! You are in this together. Neither of you are being deprived, but you are going in the same direction now instead of fighting each other.

Comments

Upon-Request said

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on 3/10/2009 Very important topic for any couple!

joni04 said

on 3/4/2009 Great article. I love Dave Ramsey and am looking into following his budget plan. I watch his show all the time. Thanks for this well written article! *****