I said this once in my Why Married Couples Need to Combine Finances blog, and I’m going to say it again because it’s that important to understand: Very few horrible marriages build wealth, and very few people that are horrible with money have a healthy marriage.
Money and marriage are inevitably tied together. Which explains why it’s the biggest reason for divorce.
Taking control of your finances, AS A COUPLE, is beneficial to your marriage for so many reasons!
Communication
When you combine finances with your spouse and focus on being intentional with your money as a couple;
Then you build a level of communication and unity in your marriage that you just cannot do with any other subject.
Money forces you to communicate and forces you to learn how to communicate in a way that best suits your marriage. And no, marriage avoidance is not a form of HEALTHY communication.
In your marriage, when you and your spouse decide to work on finances as a team, then you are unknowingly taking a step towards working on your communication.
In the beginning, it may be hard and a learning curve, but you have to continue through the hard discussions. When you willingly tackle the hard discussions, you set a firm foundation in your marriage.
Voluntarily having difficult conversations, rather than waiting until you have no choice, builds strong communication in your marriage.
It is healthy to talk to your spouse because you are a team and you can only make the team work through communication!
Focus on Teamwork In Your Marriage
Bet you didn’t see this coming as the next reason! *Sarcasm*
When you are married, you are on a team with your spouse.
You are no longer riding solo – you have your partner for life to take on the world with.
So, why not start with taking on your finances?
One of the main tickets to getting where you want to go in life is money.
And having combined finances forces you to work together! You cannot each do your own thing and expect to have your combined finances in order.
Just like a normal team, it takes practice. You will need to work together and practice building your financial foundation.
So when the unexpected comes your way, you’re ready to handle it as a team. You can give your full attention to whatever the curveball is because you’ve been building the foundation all along.
How you handle money and deal with money as a couple flows into how you handle other aspects of your life. Like,
- Dealing with emergencies or just life changes
- Raising children
- Taking care of your physical and mental health
- Everything else, because it’s all connected!
Finances build your behavior and attitude that you as a couple handle life with.
Follow The Same Path
In a marriage, you both need to be on the same path.
If one of you is picturing your future marriage to include lots of children and the other is only wanting one child or none. Then you aren’t on the same path.
And will end up heartbroken when the time comes and you realize you two aren’t looking at the same future.
Finances help you start these discussions early on, to see what path you BOTH want to go down.
Okay, how can finances possibly do that?
Well, it’s pretty simple really.
When couples work on finances, you are more than likely looking at your long-term financial goals.
For instance:
- What to save for when we get out of debt? (i.e. house, college, baby, business, etc.)
- What is retirement going to look like and how much should we save?
- Will we be adding college savings to our future budgets?
When you start to plan on your financial future it helps you and your spouse discuss other parts of your future. Because again, the main ticket to get anywhere in your future is money.
So a MAJORITY of your big future topics will come up when doing financial planning.
I’m excited for all of you married couples to start your financial journey, and see how much it betters your marriage!
It’s going to take a lot of practice and patience, but you are a team and together you can do anything! Lose the comparisons, and just focus on making your marriage and finances better than it was yesterday!
Follow along to learn more about finances!
