Significant Druthers: Is your spouse or partner sabotaging savings plan
Posted By: Matt in Saving on 04/15/2018 at 08:59:26
Plenty of individuals, couples and families ponder on a daily basis how they can save more money and, despite their best attempts, can't seem to accurately put their finger on why they're having so much trouble.
In some cases, the finger should be pointed directly at their significant other. Now, this isn't about casting blame or the proverbial finger pointing in the literal and figurative sense but rather more about understanding how two people can be together, a couple, and yet still have trouble with money when everything else is perfectly unified and fine otherwise.
Money truly can be the root of all evil, and that madness starts when you have two individuals who can't get on the same page financially, and that makes for a very tough road ahead with anything from saving to spending and budgeting specifically and what exactly the idea of things like retirement, nest egg or financial planning mean to each of you.
Having different money wants, needs and philosophies than your significant other is nothing new but how you talk about and broach the subject can make all the difference in the world as far as whether or not you taste an ounce of success in the process.
The first and most important element of this quandary is to sit down and discuss what money and saving means to each of you. A lot of times if you can avoid the finger pointing when someone has a money misstep (such as overspending or overdrawing an account), you can cut to the proverbial chase and come up with a game plan for the household.
A lot of times, the best move is to let the more financially responsible individual control the money but not in a way that is without opinion from the lesser party. The worst move you can make is putting the better and more financially sound individual in charge of money and that person fails to clue in their other half or even listen to what they have to say.
Just because someone isn't adept at saving or budgeting doesn't mean they should be completely shut out of the money saving process. You have to move forward with saving money, budgeting and financial responsibility as a united front, a team mentality, and it can't be one person talking down to the other.
If that's the case, you might find yourself saving money but the relationship will suffer, and money will be the cause of it.
So if a frank conversation and a sit down is all it takes to find a clear understanding and compromise, why wouldn't you want to do that to ensure a path to financial success·
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