Finances Tips
Read these 18 Finances Tips tips to make your life smarter, better, faster and wiser. Each tip is approved by our Editors and created by expert writers so great we call them Gurus. LifeTips is the place to go when you need to know about Marriage tips and hundreds of other topics.
1 of 10 Ways to Survive: Maintain Work Boundaries
In the October 2001 issue of Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy an article was published on balancing work and family. Ten ideas were given on how to create a healthy balance. The fourth strategy was to maintain work boundaries.
Maintaining work boundaries is critical. Couples' sense of family as the highest priority in their lives was critical in decisions about the level of effort to expend at work and what job would best support this priority. Many couples made a commitment to maintain control over work, not allowing their careers to dictate the pace of their everyday lives.
Money Ideas for Marriage
Keep track of spending on small as well as big-ticket items. Also it is a good idea to always keep some petty cash around for special time for the two of you, even if it's just a night of pizza and a movie.
The Value of Self Reliance
It is surprising how much finances can influence our well-being individually and as a couple. While our country has focused on consumption many couples have found that being self-reliant and NOT accumulating debt produces less stress. Financial self-reliance is a good way to prevent unnecessary stress in a marriage.
Cut Your Expenses
In his book, "For Love and Money", Dr. Bernard Poduska suggests a few good strategies for cutting our expenses. First, we should cut expenses before we start spending. In other words buy less expensive versions of necessary items (value brand foods, less expensive car, etc.). Second, share if possible. Share items within your family and if possible with your neighbors. Third, plug the holes--or places where money seems to disappear without much to show where it went. These suggestions can be very helpful in reducing costs and can help establish more confidence in your financial future.
Ten Financial Principles To Live By
In a book titled, "For Love and Money" Dr. Bernard Poduska offered ten principles that can help couples deal with their finances. These principles will help you develop good patterns for a healthy financial future.
Principles:
1) Financial problems are usually behavioral problems rather than money problems.
2) If you continue doing what you have been doing, you will continue getting what you have been getting.
3) Nothing (no thing) is worth risking the marital relationship for.
4) Money spent on things you value usually leads to a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment. Money spent on things you do not value usually leads to a feeling of frustration and futility.
5) We know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
6) You can never get enough of what you don't need, because what you don't need can never satisfy you.
7) Financial freedom is more often the result of decreased spending than of increased income.
8) Be grateful for what you have.
9) The best things in life are free.
10)The value of an individual should never be equated with the individual's net worth.
Money and Marital Satisfaction
In a recent dissertation project dealing with money in marriages Dr. Koutstaal found that for "both husbands and wives, financial satisfaction was positively related, while couples who struggled with finances had lower marital satisfaction." This suggests that couples who are financially satisfied may have less conflict.
Dr Koutstaal also found that husbands were more satisfied when they shared financial decision-making. This suggests that men who include their wives in the financial decision making may be more satisfied with their marriage.
This article can be found in Dissertation-Abstracts-International-Section-A:-Humanities-and-Social-Sciences. 1998 Sep; Vol 59(3-A): 0971JN:
Net Worth Never Equals A Person's Value
In Dr. Bernard Poduska's book, "For Love and Money" he has a financial principle that we should all live by. The principle is that the value of an individual should never be equated with his or her net worth. When we place a value on a person we are disregarding their full value and potential worth. Each human being is of infinate value and should be treated as such. Can you imagine if all of our society could accept this one single principle?
Learning about Financial Planning
If you want to read a good book on finances and what the characteristics are of rich people read, "The Millionaire Next Door". This book is full of case examples of people who are rich. If you think rich people have been given their money, think again. This book will give you insight on how to develop the characteristics of money management like a millionaire.
10 Ways Dual Income Couples Survive
In the October 2001 issue of Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy an article was published on "Ten Adaptive Strategies for Family and Work Balance: Advice from Successful Families." In this article the authors interviewed many dual-income couples and asked how they adapted and adjusted and survived. Here is the list of 10 strategies for finding a balance of work and family.
1) Value family
2) Striving for partnernship
3) Derive meaning from work
4) Maintain work boundaries
5) Focus and produce while at work
6) Take pride in dual earning
7) Prioritize family fun
8) Live simply
9) Make decisions pro-actively
10) Value time
For more information on all 10 strategies you can click on Finances and read a tip on each of them independently.
1 of 10 Ways to Survive: Strive for Partnership
In the October 2001 issue of Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy an article was published on balancing work and family. Ten ideas were given on how to create a healthy balance. The second strategy was to strive for partnership.
Many couples stress the importance of striving for equality and partnership in their marriage. It was critical that they worked for equality. Although differences emerged in the degree of equality among the couples, as a group they possessed a high degree of equality. Three things created equality. First, division of labor; Second, making decisions together; and Third, they were partners on an interpersonal level. They told stories about how they respect, appreciate, and support one another.
If couples could do these three things alone they would have a pretty great relationship.
Smart Financial Planning
Someone once said that finances was one of the top three causes for divorce. Whether this is true or not, finances and the management, or lack of management, in a marriage can be destructive. Couples who work together on finances traditionally have a better marriage. Furthermore, couples who team up to solve financial woes bond in ways that couples with lots of money don't understand. Take time to plan your finances together, it can save you a lot of marital discord.
1 of 10 Ways to Survive: Value Family
In the October 2001 issue of Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy an article was published on balancing work and family. Ten ideas were given on how to create a healthy balance. The first strategy was to value family.
The article suggested that strong couples stressed the importance of maintaining a commitment to family as the highest priority. Through word and deed, both members of the couple worked hard to maintain family as their highest priority in making decisions about their behavior in daily life.
Avoiding The Master Of Debt
Debt has a powerful impact on couples and families. When couples avoid debt they reduce the stress of that debt. Many couples say debt is one of the top reasons for their divorce. The reason, in my opinion, is that couples who get in over their head have to work hard just to survive paying their bills. It is more difficult to enjoy each other when you worry about bills and paying off a big debt. Furthermore, couples who avoid debt have a sense of accomplishment. It is something they achieve together.
What Is A Shared Management System?
A shared management system in marriage can teach a couple how to share money. This can bring a couple together or tear them apart depending on whether they learn how to be responsible together. A shared management system is an income management system in which (1) both incomes are deposited in a joint account, (2) both partners have equal access to this account, (3) both partners assume responsibility for managing the account, (4) household expenditures are randomly managed by either spouse.
Source: "For Love and Money" by Dr. Bernard Poduska, 1995
Yours, Mine, and Ours
In a 1995 article by Pahl Jan, titled "His money, her money: Recent research on financial organisation in marriage." Jan Pahl (1995) examined the control and allocation of money within the household to challenge the idea that the household is an economic unit within which resources are shared equitably. The findings suggest that male-managed systems were associated with higher income levels and with male privilege in terms of decision-making and personal spending money. Female-managed systems were associated with lower income levels and with greater financial deprivation for wives. Equality between husband and wife was greatest where money was pooled and managed jointly, but these constituted only one fifth of all households.
This information comes from the abstract in the Journal-of-Economic-Psychology. 1995 Sep; Vol 16(3): 361-376.
1 of 10 Ways to Survive: Find Meaning In Work
In the October 2001 issue of Journal of Marriage and Family Therapy an article was published on balancing work and family. Ten ideas were given on how to create a healthy balance. The third strategy was to derive meaning from work.
Couples stated that being able to derive meaning from work was an important aspect of their success. They described finding enjoyment and purpose from their professional pursuits, which helped them get more energy and enthusiasm in their lives and limited work-related fatigue and burnout.
The Purpose of a Budget
A budget lays out your cash flow very simply and precisely in a brief page or two, allowing you to see your financial options clearly. A budget is NOT a financial straitjacket designed to force you to keep track of every penny your spend.
Choose your plan
Someone wise once said, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Couples who plan their financial goals together can create a unique bond while they plan for their financial future together.
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