Wonderful, now you’re married! Who is going to handle the money? Who is going to pay the bills? Usually, couples decide that the one who likes math will handle the family finances. This is a great decision you think. It makes perfect sense to the two of you.
Let me tell you, you could not be more wrong. What, did you read that correctly? Yes, you did. This is not the right way to handle the finances. Oh no, you think, you want the person who hates math doing the finances? “You’ll go broke,” you think. No bills will ever get paid. “How stupid,” you think.
Well, let me put your mind at ease. I am not suggesting that the math hater do the finances. What? There’s only two of you in this marriage. Surely, I don’t want you to go and hire an accountant to handle your finances, right?
Of course not, what you need to do is to work on your finances together. Both of you need to be involved. Together, you come up with a money blueprint/budget/cash flow plan (you decide what to call it). Together, you adjust the money blueprint monthly. Together, you decide what bills get paid.
Each of you is an adult. Each of you has a 50% stake in this marriage. It doesn’t matter if only one of you is working. You both need to be involved in the handling of the money. The reason being that if only one of you handles the money, you are minimizing the other person. Your spouse doesn’t want to be treated as a child. What happens if only one spouse is in charge and that person dies? The surviving spouse will be overwhelmed not only by the death of their spouse but by the finance. They won’t have a clue as to what needs to be done. Do it together!
