{"id":4861,"date":"2023-01-20T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-20T16:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/?p=4861"},"modified":"2024-03-06T13:30:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-06T21:30:57","slug":"common-cents-for-couples-how-to-manage-money-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/blog\/common-cents-for-couples-how-to-manage-money-together\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Cents for Couples: How to Manage Money Together"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Common Cents for Couples: How to Manage Money Together<\/h3>\n

For some couples, February might be a month for romantic connection celebrating Valentine\u2019s Day with dinner reservations or romantic gifting. For others, solidarity and closeness can be found in boycotting Cupid together. Regardless of whether you have a love or hate relationship with the cherubic matchmaker who wields heart-tipped arrows, one thing is certain: cohabitating couples will enjoy a more harmonious relationship when they align on money matters.<\/p>\n

Finance may not be the most romantic conversation topic, but it\u2019s inarguably an important one. A 2021 Fidelity Investments Couples & Money Study found that one in five couples cite money as their greatest relationship challenge and 44% of partners admit to arguing about money occasionally. Building up emergency savings, paying off debt, and saving for milestone events (like college or a new home) topped the list of concerns keeping partners awake at night.<\/p>\n

So, what\u2019s the best way to foster financial unity on the home front? We\u2019ve come up with some suggestions we hope you\u2019ll find helpful.<\/p>\n

Skip the candy; talk candidly.
\n<\/strong>If you want to be successful in managing your money, you must find comfort in talking first. Being transparent about your earnings, debt, and money philosophies may feel uncomfortable, but full disclosure is critical when it comes to making joint financial decisions like whether you want to merge finances or how you want to tackle bills. Make check-ins a regular conversation (versus a one-time event) so that when financial hurdles happen, you\u2019ll already have a baseline sense of how your partner will want to move forward.<\/p>\n

Create joint financial goals.
\n<\/strong>What do you want to achieve as a couple? Do you need to create an emergency fund or start saving for a home purchase? Do you need to budget for an upcoming vacation or pay off a high interest credit card this year? Narrow down the primary financial priorities you can tackle in tandem, and then decide how you want those goals to be reflected: as a shared document you periodically refer to? As a vision board? As categories within a financial app? Everyone has their own preferences; the importance here is finding common ground when it comes to money milestones.<\/p>\n

Organize accounts.
\n<\/strong>If your money philosophies are aligned and you generally see eye-to-eye, congratulations! Who spends what is half the battle. On the other hand, if fully merging finances is a pain point, consider keeping three accounts: one for you, one for your partner, and one for joint spending. Decide what\u2014beyond just your house payment and utility bills\u2014falls under the shared category. For example, will medical expenses and gifts for family be shared or separate? Take time to fine-tune what constitutes \u201cmine,\u201d \u201cyours,\u201d and \u201cours,\u201d (and how much you want to budget within those categories) so that discretionary spending doesn\u2019t feel like something either of you need to defend.<\/p>\n

Track your spending and savings<\/strong>.
\nOnce your accounts are organized accordingly, there are several options for syncing up finances. Sound has a great Money Management tool inside Online and Mobile Banking. Manage accounts across multiple financial institutions, set budgets and track spending, manage short- and long-term goals, create budget thresholds and more. Click on the Money Management tab in Online Banking<\/a> to get started.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Planning for Your Future
\n<\/strong>Need a little guidance when it comes to planning your finances or creating a realistic household budget? Our partner GreenPath Financial Wellness works with thousands of people each month to help them pay down debt, improve their credit, and achieve their goals. Caring, qualified counselors are ready to connect with you today, and the call is free and confidential.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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This article is shared by our partners at GreenPath Financial Wellness<\/a>, a trusted national non-profit. For further guidance, GreenPath offers credit report reviews, credit counseling and debt management services to set you up for success. Our Financial Experts can also help you create your own personalized spending plan.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Regardless of whether you have a love or hate relationship with the cherubic matchmaker who wields heart-tipped arrows, one thing is certain: cohabitating couples will enjoy a more harmonious relationship when they align on money matters. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":4862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_searchwp_excluded":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-finances"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4861"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10323,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4861\/revisions\/10323"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.soundcu.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}