How To Get Your Spouse Involved In The Family Finances

May 15th, 2011 | by Victor Tornton |

For some reason, most people in this culture find it extremely difficult to talk about their finances. Its not just with salaries; people are also secretive about how much they paid for a car, house, or even what they pay for car insurance. However, when we get married, we are called to come together as one flesh! This is kind of hard to do if we dont talk about finances with our spouse.

Usually, what happens is one person handles all of the finances and the spouse doesnt get involved at all. The non-finance spouse will either receive an allowance from the one who handles the money, or they spend at will through their credit and/or debit card!

This definitely does not follow the biblical model for marriage:

For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. ~ Genesis 2:24

Because the bible addresses the area of money management so often, it would seem necessary that a couple be on the same page, and have excellent communication regarding the household finances, if they are to truly become one flesh!

Here are a few practical things that you can do in order to make sure both partners are involved in the finances:

Communication is one of the most important things in a marriage. Most of us know that, but it still can be a difficult thing to put into practice. Setting up a regular time to meet and go over your finances, can help to make communication that much easier. Some couples may meet once a month, and others may choose to do it weekly. Whatever you choose, make sure they are frequent enough to make them meaningful.

Here are some things that you should incorporate into your regular meetings.

Pray Together And Bring Up Financial Matters

Praying together about your financial goals, concerns, problems, and insecurities does two things for you. First, you are asking God to replace your earthly goals and desires, for spiritual ones; also, you surrender all of your fears and anxiety to the Lord, so He can give you perfect peace.

Second, by praying about these things together every time you meet (and every day if they are really an issue), you acknowledge your complete dependence on God! You realize that in order to make wise financial decisions, and to be able to communicate and compromise with your spouse, youll need Gods help.

Discuss Your Goals And Progress

Once you have laid out all of your fears, concerns, and desires before God, its time to discuss your goals with each other. Go over the list of goals which you have previously established if you have not yet done this, take the time to make such a list.

Talk about why these things are important, and what you plan to do to make them a reality. Be very specific, even getting down to your motivations for having those goals. This step lays the foundation for sound financial management and communication.

Make Sure That You Both Agree On Your Goals

When discussing these goals, dont just take it for granted that your partner shares the same goals, or shares them with the same intensity. In areas which you dont agree, such as the question of whether to pay off debt or establish a 9-month emergency fund, try to find a place of compromise. For instance, maybe start out with a 1 or 2-month emergency fund, and then attack your debt.

The key here is to make sure that you walk away from the first meeting with a game plan (also known as a budget); and that can only happen if you agree on your goals. It may take more than one meeting to iron out all the details, but it is worth the effort!

Review Your Budget And Actuals

Now we get into the details of your household finances. Take time out to review your purchases, monthly bills, and income to make sure that everything is going according to your plan. If something came up which you didnt expect, discuss how it was handled and how you can be better prepared in the future.

Make sure that you both understand how much it costs to support your current lifestyle, and the effect that your debt and/or unexpected expenses are having on your finances.

Admit Any Failures/Mistakes

As you look at your budget, and review your purchases to see if you are in line with them, you may come across a few areas in which one partner has failed. Maybe you decided to pack lunch every day, but your spouse charged $80 during the previous month on lunch.

It might be an issue where a phone call needed to be made in order to secure a particular price or prevent a fee from being charged, and as you review your task list, you find that it wasnt done. Mail that was misplaced, an offer that was squandered, or even an obligation that was created (by one spouse signing a contract without the knowledge of the other) these are the types of things that can cause serious frustrations and damage trust.

Even so, you must admit these things as soon as possible in order to mitigate any possible damage, and also to maintain the lines of communication.

This act of humble confession can do a lot to help solidify trust.

Show Mercy And Compassion

If your spouse has to come to you and admit a failure or mistake, you need to be compassionate, loving, merciful, and forgiving.

Remember, the point of these meetings is to strengthen communication regarding financial matters. This cant happen if your spouse feels that they cant come to you admitting that they made a decision, or even forgot something, that may have a negative effect on your finances!

Assign Responsibilities

In order to avoid confusion, use these meetings to assign responsibilities. If one spouse hates talking on the phone, and the other doesnt mind, have the talkative one make the phone calls. The one that is great with organization should be the one who handles all of the mail.

Go through all of the typical tasks involving your finances, and divide them up by who is best suited for them.

This task list should be one of the items that is reviewed at your next family financial meeting.

Pray And Then Do Something Fun/Romantic After Your Meeting

Even though family finances can be a very serious matter, you must remember that you are a family, and not a business. To take the away any stress or pressure that may have been caused by reviewing your finances especially if there were mistakes or sins confessed you should do two things to close our your meeting.

First, you should pray. Commit every financial issue over to God. Make sure that any sin (like worrying, anger, pride, etc) is confessed, and you ask for the strength and faith to trust Gods promise to provide and care for His children.

Secondly, you should then do something fun and/or romantic with your spouse. Make sure that you are enjoying each other and expressing your love to one another, even after discussing something as serious as your finances and future.

Even if there is one person who handles the bulk of the financial transactions in the household, you should still try to find something that you can do together.

My friend and her husband pay bills together. She reviews the bills and account balance and writes out the checks, while he prepares the envelopes to be mailed out and updates the checkbook register. This way, they both know what they are paying for each bill, and they have a good understanding of what it truly costs to support their lifestyle.

Also, they both know which vendors they use for every service, and they should have a good idea of how much money is in the bank account at all times. She told me that this only takes 15-20 minutes, and only needs to be done about twice each month!

Find a small activity that you and your spouse can share, that will go a long way to get them involved in the finances!

Outside of these regular financial meetings, you should take a few minutes whenever necessary to go over any new financial developments. This can be something as simple as receiving a balance transfer offer, which a close deadline, in the mail, to something like wanting to donate $200 to a cause that your coworker is supporting.

No matter how often you hold your meetings, you should still make sure that you regularly communicate about financial matters with your spouse, so that you both can be informed about all that is going on in your household!

What are some things that you do to get your spouse involved in your finances?
Do you currently have a regularly financial meeting in your household?
Does one person handle the finances in your marriage, or do you share certain responsibilities?

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