Some of you might be thinking that creating a family budget is as painless and worry free as a root canal. While it probably won’t be the most fun activity you and your spouse have ever endured, it doesn’t have to be so bad. And it will pay off – literally and figuratively – in the long term.
To get started you should create three separate accounts – yours, mine, and ours, writes Gary Belsky, editor in chief of ESPN the Magazine and co-author of Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them: Lessons from the Life-Changing Science of Behavioral Economics (Simon & Schuster, 2010).
“The single biggest problem married couples encounter involves the lack of control and independence that results from both partners not having independent control of some funds, along with shared control of a central fund,” writes Belsky.
Once your funds are in the proper accounts, you must lay out your financial history for one another. You can do this at your first monthly budget meeting, a suggestion of Ramsey’s. This must be a no-holds-barred discussion with full disclosure about savings, debt, and investments. Ideally, you already discussed this all before the wedding. But it’s worth revisiting as you plan your budget.
