Setting Up A Budget With A New Spouse

The Relationship Cure: A 5 Step Guide to Strengthening Your Marriage, Family, and Friendships

Financial problems are one of the biggest problems faced in marriage, and one of the main reasons why people deal with this problem is because two people with very different ideas of money are coming together and beginning to make decisions as one! Coming up with a budget together is one of the best ways to combat this problem, something both of you can agree on - and most importantly of all, to come up with it even before the two of you get married, so that you both know what your money will look like when you start your life together!

When you come up with this budget, make sure that there will be three areas of spending money - spending money for you, spending money for your significant other, and spending money for the two of you to share. The spending money that each of you has as "your own" can be used for whatever you two, individually, want to use the money for, whereas the combined spending money should be used on things that the two of you do together.

You should also make sure you are saving money, and if this is difficult for one or both of you, you can make it easier by having something "specific" toward which your savings money is going (instead of it just going to the general idea of "savings"); after all, savings will be a big part of laying the foundation for a successful financial future.

Finally, you should make sure that - in all your budget planning - you are not planning everything in such a tight manner that you end up being short all the time; rather than planning your budget tight, plan it loose, as having "extra" money always feels better than "not having enough" money!

In the end, you and your spouse will have to make the final decisions when it comes to your budget, but this guide should help you to plan a budget that will be effective for both of you!