Married? You are probably arguing about money. Most of us do.
Overall, women like to have a nice cozy emergency fund and the roof over their head secure. Men prefer toys.
Nice generalizations huh? Lets just pretend that these myths are true. Women want to have a nice emergency fund of about four months of living expenses. For most people that is between $10,000 and $20,000, but could reach much higher. I don’t recommend having less than $10,000 in an emergency fund as it will take this much or more for the average family to rebound after a job loss, fire, medical emergency or an unexpected expense.
If you and your spouse are arguing a lot about money, build your emergency fund – that alone may help the stress and stop a lot of the quibbling.
Now, lets say that you have an emergency fund but you are still bickering – the next step is to sit down together every single week – or more often – and discuss your money and where it is going.
Hubby and I had been married twenty-five years before we started doing this. Crazy I know. We always talked about money, but had never really budgeted, and just agreed when one of us needed to spend.
Now, we have a long list of ‘wish’ items, including our once basics of dinners out, manicures (for me) and bike accessories (for him). Each week or so, one of us can have something on our wish list, and we take turns. We are also saving for larger items on our list.
Each of us also gets an ‘allowance’ which can be spent any way we choose! I can use my cash to have a massage, eat lunch out with friends, or buy extra stuff for my daughter. Hubby can have a beer with the guys, purchase bike shorts, – whatever he chooses – and I don’t have a say in it.
We never argued much before, but now our stress level is even lower. We both know exactly what is happening with our cash, we each have a set amount to spend frivolously, and our emergency fund is funded!
Homemade Bliss.