Married Folks..Do you have a Financially healthy Marriage?

Question

Married folks..Do you have a financially healthy relationship?? Do both of you look together at the monthly budget together...Look at all the monthly bills together?? Sit down monthly and adjust the income together to put in savings or pay a bill off???

Answer 1

We have a very healthy marriage in that respect. But it really begins with having some basic ground rules. Here are ours:

1) No major purchases without the other's approval.

2) If we get into debt (such as credit cards), no major purchases until debt is paid off.

3) We have a budget, and we stick to it.

4) No separate checking accounts (except my business account). It's just a pain to move money back and forth, and you avoid the "your money/my money" debate. Plus separate checking accounts always destroy trust.

5) We save 10% every month. No matter what. It goes right off the top and into our investment account before we pay the mortgage, or anything else.

Answer 2

Yes. I'm a stay at home mom and I take care of the details and give him a run down of the overview for the month. He brings home the bacon and I spend time trying to lower the budget every month. We agree on savings and investments and look at those things every six months or so. We are two months away from ending a get out of debt plan that we put into action over 3 years ago. The only debt we'll have after that is our mortgage! I can't wait to start paying it off more aggressively. Our plan is to have our mortgage paid off in 5 years. I think being financially healthy is having a sound financial goal that you both put into action.

Answer 3

I think so. We deposit both of our paychecks in our checking account. I take care of paying the monthly bills but we have made a budget that we stick to pretty well so we do not have to talk about it monthly anymore. I pay our bills and send a check for the amount we invest each month to our financial planner. My hubby and I talk about things as needed (large purchases, changes in our finances, etc.)

We have very similar views on finaces which helps things a lot. Both of us are frugal and we would not get along with someone who liked to spend a lot of money. I think that it is important to marry someone who has similar views on where money should be spent.

Answer 4

I think on average most couples live paycheck to paycheck with a small overdraft on there chequing account just encase.

I also know that most married people have one spouse that deals with the finances and the bills. Usually the wife they are just better at this it's an organizational skill that men hate to deal with.

I think if you live in a emotionally happy marriage that the finances are just a part of it. Finances should never be the main focus in a marriage or it will just fail remember communication, emotions and honesty, faithfullness, and then finances. That is why it is important never to marry just for money if the money goes the marriage is doomed.

God Bless and Best Wishes

Answer 5

Yes, we are financially healthy, but that doesn't mean the occasional argument over money doesn't occur. We have a budget and we stick to it, but it's when the incidentals or accidentals come up that we can get a little rattled. Before we got married we decided how much of our money would go to checking, savings, pensions, IRA's, 401ks, and the account we have set aside for vacations and special extras. We don't sit down together monthy, because we do electronic banking---we do both stick closely to the budget, and we can trust that neither one of us is going to go on a major spree without consulting the other and making sure it's affordable. All in all we've got it down.

Answer 6

Yes I would say it's healthy. In the almost 15 yr.s of marriage, I take care of all that, he doesn't have too. But we have tried and boy he didn't get it. I think it's cause he didn't want too. He knows were all the money goes, bills, food, savings and etc. We hide nothing credit cards, cash, bills, we know what''s and where the $ goes:) Every week he gives me his check, don't get me wrong it's not like he doesn't have money he's always got cash and a credit card on hand and access to the bank if and when needed. It works great for us:) But either way we live pretty much paycheck to paycheck.

Answer 7

My husband and I have a very financially healthy marriage. I take care of paying the monthly bills, but we discuss the budget together and make sure that we are saving enough. We discuss large expenses and make sure that we only buy what we can afford...no credit card debt.

Answer 8

In my first marriage no, I did everything, he ran up bills and created credit problems, I took care of the problems and tried to keep our family afloat.

In my second marriage yes. He pays the bills and manages the day to day, but we both work on the yearly/monthly budget, talk about finances, agree on what we should or should not spend money on, etc. We are a team.

Answer 9

We don't do this MONTHLY, probably quarterly. We will go over bills together, particularly credit card bills--just to reconcile them. We talk over all significant financial decisions before making them. We're not great, but better than some, worse than others.

p.s. My husband handles the paying of the bills and managing finances--he's MUCH better at it than I am. But then, he's a small business owner--so I'd hope he'd be better at it!

Answer 10

We are not financially well off. We live paycheck to paycheck and we are very happy. I am not saying that having a lot of money wouldn't be great, but we have our kids and we have eachother, that is the most important. And yes we do sit down every week and decide what bill needs to be paid.