3 Financial Habits All Couples Need to Adopt to Build Wellness at Home
Nothing kills a relationship faster than not being on the same financial page. Here are three important steps you and your love can take to work through financial challenges and stay together.
Talk about money once per week.
Time to break those bad habits where you sweep uncomfortable conversations under the table. You need to take 30 minutes each week to have a financial check-in. Perhaps this is over coffee on Saturday morning or a glass of wine on a Tuesday night. Turn your phones off and focus. Your agenda should cover these three questions:
How much did we each spend this week?
Did we spend over or under our budget? Why?
What’s coming up that will impact our financial situation?
Agree on a certain dollar value to save each day.
One of the strongest couples we’ve every worked with figured out how much they need to save every single day towards their long-term goals. For them, it worked out to $20 per day – the equivalent of purchasing lunches. So, they packed their lunches e-Transferred $20 into their savings account every single day. Simple. Want to try it?
What can you afford to save every day? Consider what you spend every day on coffees, lunches, drinks, dinner, gym classes, etc. Make a trade-off in order to save.
Set up daily e-transfers into a high-interest savings account.
Set one big financial goal for the year.
This is one of the best ways to ensure financial harmony in your home. Agree to work towards just one goal every year. Too many goals mean too many financial priorities, so just stick to one.No, one person doesn’t get to set that goal unilaterally. And YES, both partners are equally accountable for the goal. Some of the most successful goals are specific (how much) and have a clear strategy.
What’s the most important thing to you and your honey? Saving a down payment? Catching-up on RRSPs? Crushing your debt? Burning your mortgage? Your goal should be about what’s most important to you both.
Determine the amount of money you need to put towards the goal each paycheque.
Check in on your goal at your weekly financial meeting.
If you and your honey are locking-horns on money, you might need a money coach to help you work it out. Trust us, you can get through just about any financial challenge if you approach it as a team, with respect and without finger pointing.
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