Comments on: Smart Couples Finish Rich – Ch. 1 Review

By: Four Pillars › Smart Couples Finish Rich - Ch. 2 Review

Four Pillars › Smart Couples Finish Rich - Ch. 2 Review — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 01:44:38 +0000

[...] This post is part of my review of Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach. The chapter 1 review can be found here. [...]

By: telly

telly — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 17:21:26 +0000

Good idea Brip Blap. When my husband and I were 1st married we had a fair bit of debt, mostly student loans and car payments. We passed the financial bookkeeping back and forth a few times. It’s a much harder job emotionally when there’s debt involved so it was only fair to take turns seeing the ugly minus signs!

Now that we’re in the black – I get all the glory.

By: FourPillars

FourPillars — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:24:26 +0000

That’s a great idea to hand over all the finances for learning.

I agree, I couldn’t imagine a partner who wanted nothing to do with the finances.

Mike

By: Brip Blap

Brip Blap — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 01:36:42 +0000

I actually handled all the finances until about 6 months after we got married, at which time my wife and I decided that we would hand all of the finances over to her until our son arrived a year later. We jointly decided a “crash course” was necessary to get her up to speed on our joint finances, and it’s worked out well. Both of us are 100% up to speed on our finances. Since about 75% of our payments are automated now, we generally only need to discuss big questions – retirement account contributions, moving money into the emergency fund, etc. I couldn’t imagine having a partner who wasn’t at least familiar with our finances.

By: FourPillars

FourPillars — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:09:38 +0000

Dasha - that sounds like a great plan. Certainly debt should be your first priority since it's hard to start your working career with a lot of it.

Careers are one of the most important financial aspects to concentrate as well.

Thanks for commenting!

Mike

By: Dasha

Dasha — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 00:07:58 +0000

Hi I’ve been lurking so far…

My situation is a bit different as my partner and I are still very young (he’s still in college and I’m just out of school a year). We keep out “personal” money separate and keep a joint account where we each deposit a certain amount of money for our joint expenses. It makes sense for us to keep most of our finances separate because he came into the relationship with a bit of cash and no debt while I have no cash but big (student) debt. We discuss everything though, and although I do not know the exact value of his money (I have seen his tax return though), I have a sense of the ballpark figure and he knows about my debts, payments on them etc. As we begin to move past survival mode in our finances and begin to save more together, our finances will merge together more. Although we are still years away from buying a house or having children, we discuss the financials of these things regularly. In out situation, this discussion centers mostly on career goals and the money vs time vs meaningful job questions.

By: moneygardener

moneygardener — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 16:54:02 +0000

telly you’ve inspired a post for me…

By: FourPillars

FourPillars — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:17:52 +0000

I guess it boils down to goals and lifestyle – if one partner wants to save and plan for early retirement and the other person wants to live it up and worry about retirement later, then perhaps no amount of communication can bridge that gap.

Mike

By: telly

telly — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 15:05:29 +0000

My husband and I handle the finances in much the same way as MG. I take care of things for the most part but we discuss where we’re going on a regular basis.

Sometimes, like Wooly Woman, I think I bore him with my finance babble though too. I bet sometimes he wishes I had a blog.

Mr.Cheap, I can see how that could have affected your relationship. I have a couple friends, that, when the topic of finance even remotely comes up, they clam up and either leave or change the subject.

I’m beginning to understand that the subject of personal finances can make certain people very uncomfortable. I try to steer clear of the subject with those friends but I think that would be hard to get around if it were your SO.

By: Wooly Woman

Wooly Woman — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:39:25 +0000

I am the financier definitely. The good part though is that as I have got things in order, the debt down, and our credit scores up, Mr W. is now taking much more interest and responsibility. I think he didn’t know how to fix it (I didn’t either at one point), but now there is a path to take he is happy to be traveling Sometimes I think he is bored about my finance babble, but we each have our interests, and I can talk on my blog about things instead if needs be.