5 ways to make financial conversations easier!

GUEST BLOGGER: ELIZABETH VANCE

​I don’t imagine many couples get excited to talk about finances. In fact, we’ve all heard that financial disagreements are often a large contributing factor to conflicts in marriage. Whether it’s easy for you or not, financial conversations are a must in healthy relationships! Hopefully these few tips can make the process less daunting and more rewarding!

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Talk Regularly
              It can be really easy to put something off if you don’t enjoy it. But all that’s done is push back the inevitable which often makes it worse. If you don’t enjoy financial conversations but you know you need to have one, don’t put it off! Do it today! And then once you’ve talked, schedule a time to talk regularly. More frequent and short conversations are easier to have than less frequent, long conversations.

Make it Fun
              Just because the topic is often serious doesn’t mean you have to sit down to a boring meeting with your significant other. Get your favorite desserts, turn on some fun music, or treat yourselves by going out on a date once you are done. Rewarding yourself can be a great tool in helping you make progress. Utilize that tool with your financial conversations, too!

Compromise
              If you and your spouse have different financial goals in mind, it is important to compromise. Maybe one of you wants to spend your fun money on vacations while the other has always wanted to own their dream car. Both goals have pros and cons. Understand that your spouse feels differently than you and work out a way to put funds towards both of your goals. And more than likely, you will both benefit and enjoy each other’s ideas. Keep compromise a part of your financial conversations.

Be Understanding
              Everyone has different feelings towards money. And everyone has their own virtues and vices. If you can learn why your significant other feels a certain way and does certain things with money, you can make better progress together. To get a better understanding of why you and your spouse behave the way you do with money, check out the Money Habitudes website.

Have Goals and Review Them
              Setting goals together will give you direction and help you make sure both ends of the partnership have a say. Also, it does no good to have goals if you never think about them again. Write your goals down and put it somewhere you can both see it often. Then, as an occasional part of your regularly scheduled financial conversations, review your goals and adjust them as needed.
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Like I said before, I don’t imagine many couples get excited about having financial conversations. But hopefully some of these tips will help make the experience better and easier. Give some of these tips a shot and let us know what works for you! Good luck!