Who Does the Banking in Your Family?

It usually surfaces early in a relationship. One partner is better at money than the other. Not because of any IQ advantages, either. But, because of maybe a better, more informed childhood on the subject of money or, because of a better education on the topic. However, it does not really matter from where it originates.

What is important is that there is a transfer of knowledge and experience to help ward off the devastating effects on one who is left behind in the unfortunate passing of the other. Not to be morbid, but there is something that you can take with you to the grave – knowledge.

So, here are some tips that might help you in the sharing of financial tasks. If this effort does not totally wreck your relationship, though, nothing will!

Take a Course Some might have to face the fact that the one who does the finances is not the best person to teach the other about how to do it. It is akin to teaching a partner to drive in that it can be very maddening. So, what better way to obtain the knowledge about this than to seek out a local course from which the essential skills can be learned and applied. If there is nothing available in your area, you can look online to see if there are any web-based courses which will teach one how to manage money.

Use Good Tools Like it or not, the old way of manually managing money is over. You can choose software that you load on your PC to accomplish this, or use one of the many online websites that allow you to log on and manage your money in real-time for multiple accounts. Whichever you choose, you will get flexibility and features that will help you become a good money manager.

Do It Together Once you have achieved a level of learning it is best to begin to put that knowledge to work. Performing the task together at first is a real good way to open up communications about the subject and trade tips and secrets for preferred methods. This might even help begin to pave the way for a better relationship because of the amount of interaction from the tasks. Who would have thought that working on something like money management could have the potential to save a relationship!

Trade Off the Tasks After the tasks have been mastered, avoid the tendency to fall back into one or the other partner doing the work. Use a month-on, month-off strategy. One month you put the items in the checkbook and reconcile the account, the next month, the partner takes the task.

Talk About It Make it a point to keep talking about money management. Bringing it up in conversations that are centered on everyday life will help ingrain the processes into the relationship. But it does even more than that in it helps provide a sense of camaraderie and oneness. There’s nothing like moving in the same direction that keeps a relationship strong.

Plan for the Future Once this process is a normal part of a relationship other just as important topics can be brought to the fore and discussed, such as retirement planning, etc. Long-term planning requires making sure that there is enough money going to the right things. And, both partners need to be in agreement on what is best for them and their future.

If you work your plan and plan your work on this subject, you will both be better at it and reap the benefits of having better managed finances, no matter what comes your way.