Managing Finances and Debt

In a marriage, balancing work and family life can be difficult. On one hand, there is the need and desire to work, earn money, and provide for your family, but on the other hand, there is the need to spend time with your family, creating bonds, building connections, and being there for each other. There are many different ideas taught in today's world about how we should balance our work and family life. It is important that we always remember to keep our priorities straight and remember what is important in life, which is why in today's blog, I wanted to talk about managing finances and budgeting, and paying off debt. Finances play a big role in the family. According to a BYU article titled Managing Family Finances, "Money management is critical to the success and happiness of any relationship, including your marriage. The Family: A Proclamation to the World states that parents have a sacred duty to provide for their children's physical needs. Money management is a key to a happy family. Beyond physical survival, a family's emotional survival depends on financial stability and tranquility." The way you manage your money can lead to issues in your marriage and family life by causing mistrust, selfishness, and dishonesty or it can bring you closer to your spouse as you communicate and work together to earn money, save, and use your money wisely! Here are 2 tips that can help you as you strive to work with your partner to manage your finances. 1) Talk it out-- lay everything on the table! It can be uncomfortable at first, but you and your partner need to understand where you each stand financially in regard to income, debt, spending habits, savings goals and credit scores. This shouldn't be a one-time thing, but rather a reoccurring conversation that is had between you and your spouse. 2) Create a budget together! After you have laid everything out on the table, you can now create a budget that works for you and your spouse. Track how much money is coming in and how much is going out. Make reasonable goals for the amount you want to save and how much is okay to spend and stick to your budget! Again, continue to check back in with your spouse and with your budget to assess how things are going. Make necessary changes when needed! The goal is to figure out what works best for your family. Paying off Debt There was a book published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints titled "One For the Money: Guide to Family Finance" written by Marvin J. Ashton that I am going to be referencing in this section. It stated that, "The American Bar Association has indicated that 89 percent of all divorces can be traced to quarrels and accusations over money. Others have estimated that 75 percent of all divorces result from clashes over finances. Some professional counselors indicate that four out of five families are strapped with serious money problems." Those statistics are unbelievable! My hope is that people can better learn how to manage finances, pay off debts, and avoid debts altogether! In the book, he talks about something called A debt-elimination calendar. Here is a link to the calendar with a description of how to use it. 460x516.jpg (460×516) (ldscdn.org) "Mark off several columns on a piece of paper. In the first column on the left, write the names of the months, beginning with the upcoming month. At the top of the next column, write the name of the creditor you want to pay off first. It may be the debt with the highest interest rate, or the earliest pay-off date. List the monthly payment for that creditor until the loan is repaid as shown in the illustration above. At the top of the next column, record the name of the second creditor you want to repay, and list payments due each month. After you have repaid the first creditor, add the amount of that monthly payment to your payment to the second creditor. (In the example above, notice that the family finished making monthly payments on their credit card. They then added $110 to the $70 furniture payment, creating a new monthly payment of $180.) Continue the process until all loans are repaid." As you better learn how to manage your finances with your spouse and become secure financially, you will find more joy and peace in your life. You can prioritize you time and use it so spend time with your family and building relationships. It requires an open mind, time, and sacrifice but I know that doing these things can help you too!