Finding Common Financial Ground For Couples - Money Tip Tuesday

According to a 2021 study, conducted by Ramsey Solutions, 41% of couples in the US argue about money, primarily due to the amount of debt they owe. If this sounds like your situation, and you want to know how to reach common financial ground with your partner, and qualify to win a $100 VISA gift card don't miss this episode. 

Links: 

• Learn more about our Valentine's podcast giveaway and how to enter to win a $100 VISA gift card. Contest runs from February 14 - February 24, 2023. 
• Watch our Budgeting 101 webinar
• Watch our Financial Freedom: Your Path to Debt Free Living webinar
• Visit triangleuniversity.org to watch webinars, read articles and access financial tools and resources. 

Transcript: 

This is Money Tip Tuesday from the Making Money Personal Podcast. 

Hi everyone! On today’s Money Tip Tuesday, we’re going to give you some practical advice on how to find common financial ground with your favorite person, but before we start, there’s a special announcement for this episode. Since we’re releasing this Money Tip on February 14, 2023 (Valentine’s Day), we are giving a $100 Triangle Visa gift card to a lucky listener. To qualify, you must be a subscriber to the Making Money Personal podcast and send us an email to tcupodcast@trianglecu.org with a pic of your subscription screen and the promo code. That’s it. I’ll share that info again at the end of this show. For now, let’s talk about that grueling statistic that 41% of couples argue about money in the US, primarily because of debt. Personally, I think that number seems incredibly low but even if that were true, every couple is different—if you argue about money, than here is some tips to help curb those money arguments: 

Be Calm & Communicate. – Let’s imagine this month is really tight and you just found a receipt for an unexpected purchase on your kitchen counter. How do you handle this situation? Well, I try to put myself into work mode and ask myself: how would I talk to my co-worker about an unexpected matter? I know our work culture fosters an environment of professionalism and respect, so try to apply those same principals at home. Approach your partner about the unexpected expense situation with kindness and respect. Be calm. It’s fair to ask some questions about the purchase to dig a little deeper but use a respectful tone. Also ask yourself: was there communication earlier in the month about how tight it was going to be? If not, you may have just uncovered a deeper problem than the latest purchase—you may have discovered a communication problem.  

As a couple, if you haven’t discussed financial matters before, it’s not too late. Just set the right mood, which means you may want to schedule some time with your partner for this, have the right (respectful tone) and talk about money and life. Start a 50,000 foot conversation about financial beliefs and goals and then take it down to 15,000 feet with the specific questions about where you want to live, your job, how can you reduce your cable or streaming services (insert laughter), and other monthly expenses, which leads us to our next tip. 

Make a Budget & Share Money Responsibilities – According to a Stress in America survey, only 33% of survey respondents said both partners share an equal role in financial decision-making; only 23% reported that management of household finances is shared equally. 

This brings us to your first money responsibility as a couple:  create a monthly budget…together! When couples create a budget, there is weigh in and buy-in…and in the budget process, you’re communicating about how much money you have this month, and how it will be spent. If you’re new to budgeting, we recommend a zero-based budget and have online tools to explain how this budget works. Sometimes when couples budget, they realize it’s not their spending that’s the problem, it’s their income. Decisions may need to be made about future income opportunities, education and/or if second jobs are needed. These can be very tough discussions but when your problem-solving as a couple, you’ll come out ahead every time because you’ll be working together. 

Pay off Your Debt. – Debt can be stressful, and this is truly one of the main reasons couples argue about money. Just like a budget, it’s important to be on the same page for paying off your debt. There is nothing more frustrating than being in a relationship where one person is focusing on paying off debt, and the other person is racking up debt. This breeds frustration and resentment. The most common way to tackle your debt, is the snowball method. We have online tools to show you how to tackle and destroy your debt, so please check those out on our YouTube channel through triangleuniversity.org.  

No secrets. – Keeping a secret is stressful enough. Imagine if the secret came with dollar signs. Do yourself a favor and don’t hide your money problems from your partner. If you’ve messed up and racked up credit card debt, it’s time to pull up your big person britches and talk about your situation. Strong couples fight problems together. Yes, there may be some struggles and challenges, but put your heads together to find a resolution, and work together to win! 

Discuss Dreams. – Far too often couples get in the weeds with their monthly budget and forget to discuss their dreams. Most financial conversations are centered around what needs to be paid this month. Where is the money coming from? Do we have enough for a latte? A thousand scenarios to work out, but put a tack in all those questions and take time just to plan for what your future selves will look like: Where are you going to live? What will you be doing for work? What do you want to do for work? Do you want to travel or are there special hobbies you want to explore? 

When my husband and I discussed our dreams for retirement a couple of years ago, he was all about wood working and fishing. Neither of those two things really appealed to me, but the more I thought about it, I was like, “I don’t really care about fishing, but I do like to boat” so now we have a common goal to buy a boat within the next few years. 

That wraps up our tips for finding financial common ground for couples—I hope you found the key takeaway to be communicate, communicate, communicate. 

Now for the fun stuff. I promised to share the promo code for our $100 Triangle VISA gift card raffle, so get ready here it is: P******3 . This is all one word. 

Just a reminder on how to enter: you have to be a subscriber to the Making Money Personal podcast and send us an email to tcupodcast@trianglecu.org  with a pic of your subscribe screen and the promo code. That’s it. This contest runs February 14th – February 24th 2023 at midnight so make sure you send us your email by the February 24th. For official contest rules, visit Trianglecu.org. 

If you have any comments or ideas for additional tips, please email us at tcupodcast@TriangleCU.org. Be sure to follow the Making Money Personal podcast page on Facebook and IG for more great content. 

Thank you to our sponsor, Triangle Credit Union, and to you for tuning in!  

Have a wonderful day everyone!