Since when did we start believing marriage to be more than a physical union and mental attachment? Probably, since the early days of human civilization, when society and family were given higher priority over basic survival!
Marriage is a promise of never-ending commitment! It is a mutual understanding between two people to survive in this world in complete togetherness!
Marriage instills the importance of responsibility and, most importantly, marriage helps you in realizing you can love and admire everything in the world, but you will only love and admire one person on a deeper level.
However, it goes beyond basic marriage ethics to make you understand how marriage leaves you in a financial binding with your partner, and how you can cope by managing your finances effectively.
Marriage and finances go hand in hand. There’s no second opinion about that! You and your partner will be sharing all the financial obligations and decisions, and in a mutually combined manner too.
Some might argue, why should you be sharing finances! you earn separately. Hence both of your finances should be kept divided! Quite true, I completely agree with that!
However, what if I say, ‘united we stand and divided we fall’? Will it be enough for you to change the mindset?
Combined and merged finances mean more buying power, more net worth, fewer obligations, and more savings! In totality, it means more opportunities to get hold of, which you can’t achieve alone!
Splitting finances do not mean separate finances, it means merging in a broader sense. The biggest mistake couples make, when they think of splitting finances, is they divide money issues by ‘his-his’ and ‘hers-hers.’ This shouldn’t be the case.
Splitting finances mean sharing obligations, not getting divided! It’s an act of collaboration and connectivity.
Examples are best when talking about finances. Suppose both of you are earning members of the family. Good as cream! Very nice!
You must have big expenses too! These could be home rent or mortgage payments, insurance premiums, credit card bills, grocery and transportation bills, utility bills, and surely a significant amount of household costs.
Not to surprise you, but if you add up all these collages of different expenses you have, then you will see how they are taking up most of the income both of you make!
You are no different. This is the case with nearly every household, not only in America but all over the world!
Hence, with splitting the finances equally, you will be dividing liabilities! You can take care of the insurance payments, grocery costs, and utility bills.
On the other hand, your partner can deal with debt payments, mortgage, and car loan payments.
Then, with whatever paycheck amounts both of you are left with, you can make significant contributions to savings! After taking care of savings, both of you can enjoy the free cash, or the excess, for fulfilling luxury expenses.
So, this is how we go on about splitting finances. It’s not that your salary will be used only for your personal expenses!
If you fully trust in separate finances, then with time your family may collapse. Moreover, owning assets and properties together also influences you to stay in a lifelong relationship with your partner.
Best Two Ways to Split Finances With Your Spouse
Expenses and Debt Payments.
Dividing the obligations and maintaining a budget is the best way to get out of debt for married couples.
However, if your primary focus is to pay off debts as soon as possible, both of you should be breadwinners.
Considering that’s done, the next thing is to have a good budget. If both of you have a decent income coming in each month, then one of you can take care of the big secured debts, like a mortgage or equity loans, or the car loan.
Although, that doesn’t mean the other one is free of all liabilities. The other one should be focused on taking care of day to day household costs, just as I have explained in the above section.
However, to make things go as planned, you got to have a budget in hand. There’s nothing to get freaked out by the ‘Budget’ word. I am laying down a straightforward method you can follow.
Given, you have figured out all the payments and monthly expenses you got to deal with. You will be making separate envelopes for each of them.
This means, one for credit card bills, one for electricity cost, one for insurance premiums, one for gas costs, one for the mortgage and so on.
The envelopes need not be real life envelopes (they can be if you are eager to buy one for each of the 100 expenses you have).
By envelope we mean allocation. In pen and paper, you will be writing all the expenses down and assign the specific dollar amounts beside them.
Once, that’s done, both of you will point out who wants to take up what responsibility. See? it’s that easy!
This budget is The Envelope Budget. In the past, especially during the early 20th century, normal households used envelopes to divide money for expenses, and hence came the name!
Savings
After the debt payments and expense part is done with, you should try to combine the contributions and concentrate totally on savings.
Now, the trust factor comes into play and the longevity of the relationship. God forbid, if you are thinking otherwise, like breaking up with your partner anytime soon, then man, I won’t encourage you to play along with this part.
Here, I am talking of combined investments! You will be building big savings by making joint contributions.
Also, with little help from investment strategies, things will get a lot easier for you, if the plans are to enter mainstream investments like stocks, bonds or funds!
The biggest power of marriage is probably the opportunity to invest more wealth since there are two incomes. Utilize it, mate! Make full use of it by believing in the partnership!
By following these tips, you will enjoy a financially stable relationship as a couple. Couponing is also a great way to cut down on your expenses. Here’s how you can stretch your family budget with coupons.
