August 8, 2020
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Managing money well as a couple

By: Ken Weise
September 21, 2018

 What are the keys in planning to grow wealthy together?



First off, how will you make your money grow? Simply saving money will help you build an emergency fund, but unless you save an extraordinary amount of cash, your un-invested savings will not fund your retirement. Should you hold any joint investment accounts or some jointly titled assets? One of you may like to assume more risk than the other; spouses often have different individual investment preferences. 



How much will you spend and save? Budgeting can help you arrive at your answer. A simple budget, an elaborate budget, or any attempt to have a budget can prove more informative than none at all. A thorough, line-item budget may seem a little over the top, but what you learn from it may be truly eye opening.


What degree of independence do you want to maintain? Do you want to have separate bank accounts? Separate “fun money” accounts? To what extent do you want to co-mingle your money? Some spouses need individual financial space of their own. There is nothing wrong with this, unless a spouse uses such space to hide secrets that will eventually shock the other.     

Can you be businesslike about your finances? Spouses who are inattentive or nonchalant about financial matters may encounter more financial trouble than they anticipate. So, watch where your money goes and think about ways to repeatedly pay yourselves first rather than your creditors. Set shared short-term, medium-term and long-term objectives, and strive to attain them. 

  Communication is key to all this. In the TD Bank survey, 78 percent of the respondents indicated they were comfortable talking about money with their partner, and 90 percent of couples describing themselves as happy claimed that a money talk happened once a month. Planning your progress together may well have benefits beyond the financial, so a regular conversation should be a goal.
