Money-related issues are common to surface in a marriage. When people go from being single to a couple, there can be many loopholes in financial matters that need to be addressed.
Money can’t be the reason for your unhappy marriage at all. You should be able to identify these issues and resolve them calmly.
Here are common money conflicts in marriage and how to solve them.
1. Different money styles
In a marriage, both the partners may have different money styles and that is for their benefit. If one spends a lot, the other one has to be a saver. That’s how you would be able to maintain a balance and not end up being bankrupt. But different money styles often cause problems between the two. To not let that happen, you both should understand each other money styles. Try to adapt to other person’s way of spending or saving money. This exercise will help you resolve common money conflicts.
2. Not being vocal about your finances
It is essential to not hide money-related decisions from your partner. You both can either have a common account for spending money or different individual accounts for your personal spending. Either way, you have to be honest about your spending, else it can become one of the major money conflicts in your marriage. To solve this problem, you can have a common bank account for home expenses, and for your spending, you both can have your bank accounts.
3. Debts
Often, newlyweds find it difficult to talk openly about their finances. But the right thing to do is to talk about it. Before tying a knot you should know about your partner’s debt if any. Because you may have to be the one who helps your better half out of the debt. Some may not be willing to do it. So you need to have this conversation beforehand with your partner.
4. Different risk tolerance
In a marriage, one might be an aggressive stock investor while the other partner would love to play it safe. Therefore, you might need to understand each other’s risk tolerance when it comes to financing. Also, you should consider your overall finances together and then decide to invest in the stock market and bonds. You can even come to a common conclusion that won’t harm either of you.
5. Supporting an adult child
Before supporting an adult child you may want to rethink your investments for your retirement age. As a couple, you need to agree to one common thing about whether you want to spend money on your adult child or would want to save it for your retirement. If you think your retirement won’t be derailed by helping your adult child, then both of you can make a common decision.
6. Out of sync retirement
Sometimes husband and wife plan to retire together while sometimes they may not want to do so. It completely depends on the equation between both of them. To avoid financial conflicts in either of the cases you may wanna try retiring at different times. Even if you are bored with your job, you can move forward to do a job somewhere in the field you would love to be in.
