One of the few times in our lives that two things combine to become one is when we get married. The preacher says that we become one, for richer, for poorer, for better or for worse. You won’t have a great relationship until you can communicate and agree about money. Larry Burkett, noted financial author, says, “Money is either the best or the worst area of communication in our marriages.”
Communication before Marriage
One of the most important things to do prior to marriage is to seek pre-martial counseling. Find a good counselor or pastor and sit down and find out about your future spouse. Building strong lines of communication before you get married is essential to a good marriage and a strong financial future.
Money fights are one of the leading causes of divorce in America today, so make sure that you can agree on your spending and savings goals before you tie the knot.
Combining Income
Do not combine your income before you getting married. Once you say “I do!”, then it is time to combine your finances. Starting out your marriage with a spending plan and a budget to reach your goals will get your marriage off to a strong start. Do you need to pay off debt, student loans or the wedding reception? Set a budget and stick with it. Doing so will also help you save for a home and your future.
Agree on Your Goals
In order to be able to focus your energy and your financial management to reach your goals, you first need to know where you are going and why you want to get there. Sit down together and dream about your financial future. Do you want to own a home, send your future kids to college or retire early and travel? All of these things are within reach if you set goals early, learn to save and have the power of compound interest and time on your side. To calculate your goals with compound interest click here.
Gerken Financial Coaching Can Help
We have a pre-marital coaching package that can help you and your fiancée get on the same page with your finances. We can help you to set goals, to create a plan for eliminating debt, and to save for your future purchases. Most of all we can walk you through the process of learning to talk about money.
Whether you seek help from a professional to learn to communicate effectively with money or you work on communication with your partner, in order to be pointed in the right direction you must be in agreement on where, how and why you are spending and saving money for your future.
Tim and Kathryn Gerken are Financial Coaches in Newcastle, WA. They serve their community through classes and speaking in the greater Seattle area. Their coaching services are uniquely tailored to each client.
For a week, the local weather forecasters were hyping what was threatening to be the worst snowstorm in the Seattle area in at least a decade if not longer. Names like “Snowmageddon” and “Snowpocalypse” were bandied about as the front of the storm approached in seeming slow motion. The forecasters were right and the storm developed pretty much as they predicted. Schools closed, the streets covered with snow. At one point there were more than 200,000 people without power. The governor declared a state of “emergency”.
In our last post 
In order to meet the goals that you set for this new year, you must know what motivates you and why. Otherwise, you will start strong but soon fizzle out with the rest of the people who lack motivation. An accountability partner can really help in this area to help keep your enthusiasm alive.
Now that we are officially into 2012, it is time to stop and have the “talk” with your spouse or accountability partner. This is your uninterrupted time to dream! Make it fun, go to a park or a cafe and spend some quality time discussing how 2012 looks to you. Is it good? Could it be better? What are your dreams for the new year?
The coming of the New Year is the time when we evaluate the past year and plan for the future. We make promises to ourselves to change our habits in the coming year. By mid-February, we realize that change is painful, and the majority of New Year’s Resolutions fall by the wayside. It takes being sick and tired of being sick and tired about the things are going in order to change a habit. If the pain associated with changing is outweighed by the pain incurred by the status quo then change will not happen.
Thank you to the families that we have worked with this year! We have been privledged to serve you both through our coaching and through the Financial Peace University classes that we have facilitated. We hope that your lives have been changed for the better. Working with each of you has changed our lives as well. One of the many things that we have observed this year is that a budget or spending plan is only one part of a healthy financial plan. It is similar to a three ring circus. You have to have all three rings operating at once in order to have a great plan. Let’s look at these rings.
Over the past few years the stock market has been a roller coaster that has left many investors yelling to stop the ride. But, if you jump off the ride you won’t see the gains of recovery. Once you are out of debt and have a 3-6 month emergnecy fund for expenses set aside, it is time to start saving for retirement. Investing prior to getting out of debt and having an emergency fund is taking money away from paying down your debt faster. Most people already know this, but do you know that in order to retire well, you should be investing between 10% and 15% of your income? Here are a few things to think about when deciding where to invest. Talk to your financial planner or advisor for specific information for your situation.
The last thing most people want to think about during the end of year holidays is taxes. It is, however, important to do so. There are a couple of things you should consider at the end of the year to put yourself in a positive situation with regard to this year’s taxes and set you up for no surprises next year. All of these activities require that you be able to reasonably accurately estimate what your tax bill will be come April.
Thanksgiving is now behind us and the crazy month of December is heading at us like a locomotive. During this crazy month it is important to take time to look at where we have been and determine what 2012 will become. The great thing about the past is that it is in the past. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the same for the new year. You have the power and the resources available to change your life.
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