The financial side of living together
Without the essentials of wealth education, love and money spells nothing but trouble for a lot of couples. The reason isn’t always due to a lack of money or a person’s spending habits. Rather, trouble is often attributed to unrealistic expectations about love and gripping emotional fears involving money. It is how people choose to deal with money together that’s the problem. That said, when two people live together without the legal benefit of marriage, or if they are newlyweds, agreements on finances must be reached for the relationship to survive. If issues around finances are discussed early, and a plan and understanding about finances are reached, love and money work very well together.
Love conquers everything except the rent, utilities and grocery bills
When couples first fall in love, it is believed that the feelings they share for each other will be sufficient to overcome any and all obstacles that they may encounter during their future together. If these attitudes prevail, love and money spell disaster. Whether in love or out of love, reality is reality. That is, bills need to be paid, wealth education needs to be a priority and expectations about the way that money is spent needs to be clearly understood in order for either of these to be successfully navigated.
Love means budgeting together
Even prior to a couple moving in together, a household budget needs to be created. Couples also need to be open about income, commission payments, any and all income that they receive every month. Also, car loans and other installment loans should be discussed. This includes any existing payday loans and cash advances. Those who find themselves regularly relying on payday loans should discuss this, as well, so that the budget can be created in a way to help them better manage their monthly debt. Though payday loans are helpful when fast cash is needed for emergencies or unexpected expenses, a person who is constantly applying for online loans, or who has trouble living off of their current salary, has to be honest about their budgeting choices. Also, if a person is expected to pay child support, spousal support or even monthly dues to an organization, all of this must be disclosed and factored into a budget, too.
It is at this point that a couple can begin to realistically look at what each can afford to pay toward monthly household bills and other costs. People are hesitant to pry to have conversations like these, because they don’t want to pry to deeply into the other’s business or they pretend money doesn’t matter to them. For others, there may be fear in revealing that they’ve had debt difficulties in the past and installment loans, bad credit, payday loans or cash advances have been a part of their recent history. It is exactly the presence and continued existence of this kind of denial that begins to spell disaster for both love and money.
Love and money spells security for those unafraid to face the facts
One of the first lessons in wealth education for individuals, as well as couples, is to be honest about what one earns, what one can practically afford and how much each person needs to save in order to reach their financial goals together. For couples to move in together with dreams of purchasing a home, taking annual vacations and living a happy life is just unreasonable unless and until such serious conversations have been had and concrete plans for these things have been made. Far too many couples have found themselves at odds over money simply because they haven’t bothered to have conversations about exercising wealth education before combining their futures and their finances.
Loving each other involves honesty and a commitment to grow together. Both of these are threatened when finances are murky and a survival plan hasn’t been discussed, or when each is unclear about their financial role in the relationship. For couples who understand the importance of clarifying these matters, love and money spells security.
