Let’s kick off the summer with an uplifting quiz question: What area of disagreement between spouses is the best predictor of divorce? Sex, right? Nope. Or perhaps in-laws? Sorry, no. The answer is disagreements over finances. Money implicates our deepest values, hopes, and fears. It serves as a proxy for status and success, and it often drives our sense of self-worth. It’s no surprise that disagreements over money have profound implications for our relationships. For couples, the cornerstone of financial health is not how much you make, how much you spend, or how much you’ve saved — it’s how you communicate about and relate to money as a team. And in this article we’ll be walking through the essentials of healthy communication about money.
The Essentials of Everyday Estate Planning
A secret last will and testament, a fifteen-year fight to remove a comatose woman’s feeding tube, a last-minute model wife who sues for the late billionaire’s estate — this is the stuff of John Grisham novels, Supreme Court cases, and Us Weekly. For the rest of us, estate planning may be less dramatic (hopefully), but it remains an essential piece of ordering your financial world.
Tackling Income Disparity within Couples
Nearly 30% of married women in the U.S. now earn more than their husbands. This reversal of the traditional norm of male breadwinners can lead to conflict, depression, and downright awkwardness, as both The New York Times and The Huffington Post examined this month in worthwhile articles. But the reality is any substantial income disparity within couples — regardless of gender — invites friction. Here’s how couples with an income disparity can develop a more unified front for their finances:
Avoiding Financial Strife: 6 Principles for Couples
Money touches all aspects of our lives. It has the power to bring us great joy as well as ruin. The topic of money implicates the full spectrum of emotion, so it’s no wonder money causes more marital conflict than perhaps anything else. Learning to wisely manage money with a partner is something not taught to most of us, let alone modeled for us in a healthy way.