The 12 Facts About Money Every Couple Should Know, Part TWO – Marriage And Finance

The 12 Facts About Money Every Couple Should Know, Part TWO – Marriage And Finance

Money isn’t everything, however, it solves a lot of issues in life and within marriage in particular. The Bible says that money is the answer to many things (Ecclesiastes 10:19). In our last post, we made a statement that Marriage without money can make things difficult but the marriage that mismanages money makes the situation even harder and hopeless. This statement could not be said better. It’s so true an experience that many couples face in their marital unions, and helping these couples come out of this financial quagmire is the main reason which we’ve come up with the 12 facts about money every couple should know, Part TWO, which of course, is the continuation of the first part. It is advised to also read the first part of this article for a complete understanding of the subject matter.

That said, shall we continue?!

1. Every Couple Should Know That You Cannot Pay Off Your Debts By Borrowing More Debt.

We all know that it’s easy to fall into debt. People love debt to ease their problems or lives. Some economies run on debts. Debt also services debt because no money is free. It takes money to borrow money, which is the bitter truth. Now, get this right down into your head. You can never be debt-free by creating more debts for yourself.

It’s a strong temptation and a very easy one to run into debt in order to pay another debt. You cannot borrow from A to pay for B and from C to pay for D, and this is what many couples do. This would only lead to a vicious cycle of miserable debt traps. To pay off debt is a permanent thing that you can’t do with a temporary debt. You cannot solve the problem permanently with a temporary remedy. Avoid the debt trap just because you had debt before.

2. Every Couple Should Know That You Cannot Know Where The Money Went If You Do Not Track It.

Another easy temptation that couples encounter is that of spending without tracking the expenditure. By tracking, I mean knowing the what, when, where, and how you spend your money after you’ve spent your money. It’s true that you can spend by mistake, by foolishness, because of greed and avarice, because of pressure, or that you’ve been duped, deceived, or just spent out of poor self-analysis and the lack of good judgment.

But none of the above-mentioned weaknesses can mean anything to you if you don’t know or aren’t aware of them. This is where tracking comes in to help trace your finances to see if they are in line with budget or desired results. With tracking, you see traces of money after they might have been spent.

When you track your spending, you can discover mistakes, over billed transactions, or illegal transactions that can help inform your current or future spending. It can help you recover money from fraudulent persons. It can help you during financial budgeting and avoid unnecessary waste of resources that you used to make. Tracking helps you control your financial inflow and outflow. Tracking and writing them down would show you where you are spending unnecessarily for you to do better next time. Tracking helps you know where your money went to, and where your money is.

3. Every Couple Should Know That You Cannot Save Your Money If You Do Not Change Your Lifestyle.

There is always a need of some sort which is part of life. In meeting these needs, some people increase their sources of income, get another job, or do something under immense pressure just to have needs met. This is, however, not the reality of many households.

The reality for many couples is that there’s truly a need but not necessarily an increase in the source of income. In other words, the more the needs increase, the constant the income remains. The income does not necessarily increase because you have additional needs. That’s the truth with most couples to be realistic.

But now, what do we do in such situations? We change our lifestyle in order to save to meet that need if we cannot get another source of income. You do not need extra income to buy extra things, necessarily, if your lifestyle is full of wasteful resources from which to make cuts and save.

If you want to save money, you need to cut down on your expenses and save it. The most practical way is to change your lifestyle to save some money from your present source of income. Rather than pressure yourself into creating extra income, which is not a bad thing for a disciplined person, adjust from your present income and make changes in areas you used to spend that aren’t important or essential to life. Reduce your lifestyle expenses and cut out possible financial leakages even while you look for more ways and means to produce money without pressure.

Take a critical look at your expenses and spend less by removing or cutting out anything, behavior, eating habits, travels, etc. that are really not essential to your life, then save the same proceeds that you’ve regained. For example, if you used to spend $100 weekly in restaurants, that’s $400 per month and $4800 yearly only for restaurants–food, junk food. That’s quite a significant amount to spend on junk food but also a significant sum to save yearly if you cut out eating outside. You can make changes in lifestyle and save this amount until your needs are met.

This is a singular example but there are other areas of our lives that if we look into we can see that money is being wasted and from which we can save. You can never save if you don’t make lifestyle changes.

4. Every Couple Should Know That You Cannot Earn Beyond What You Know.

What you don’t know is greater than you because knowledge is power. The more you know, the more you are empowered in that area and the more you become good at what you do. Your level of mastery in any discipline lies in the knowing, in the amount of knowledge you know about that thing.

This is also true with financial issues. You cannot earn beyond what you know you can. If you increase your financial literacy level, you can increase your level of income through the new knowledge which you have acquired. Learn more about finances, about financial growth and management. It would help you increase your financial resources.

If you only know how to earn 3-4 digit income, you will never earn an 8 plus digit income. If you wanna earn 8 digit income, you have to learn about how to make 8 digit income. Your knowledge of the 8 digits would change your mindset and income level. All you need is to learn Financial literacy! And this is what this article helps to achieve. You’re on the right path as you read and take into consideration the content of what you are reading.

5. Every Couple Should Know That You Cannot Grow Your Money If You Do Not Know How To Invest.

To invest basically means putting money into something in view of making more money. Investment isn’t charity programs. Investment is for profit whereas charity isn’t. Whereas charity involvement may have its pecks, putting money into charity programs in view of making more money is misleading and can be frustrating indeed.

I made this point because some couples are giving to charity organizations hoping that they will be helped when things get bad, but end criticizing these organizations when they are not helped. Do you see what I mean?! The charity sector has no guarantee to pay you anything back because you once gave to them. Even when things get really ugly, you can’t take your money back.

If you want more money from where you are putting your money, then do invest in something profitable not charitable. You don’t give to charity for profit. Invest your money in a business or say something, like stocks, shares, real estate or any other business of your choice. From there, you can be expecting to get a profit from whatever you’ve invested in. So investment is for profit and charity isn’t. By investing, you can make your money grow. And the good news is you can always learn how to invest your money. Try investing if you wanna see a profit.

6. Every Couple Should Know That You Cannot Invest Money You Do Not Have.

This is another one which is so simple but real as well. You cannot invest money you don’t have, so stop with the daydreaming; stop procrastinating as well. And start with what you have now. You may have a very insignificant amount for a start, yes, but start anyway. Remember that our aim for this article was to help you see how you can save money from what you already have.

You can start from there. Start saving now, today. Plan for the investment as you save now, your saving is part of that investment in the making. So stop daydreaming and start today to work your way into investing your money already saved. I hope with The 12 Facts About Money Every Couple Should Know, Part TWO, I was able to stimulate your mindset into something better to create a better you financially.

What have you learned today? And how well have you been doing along the line of saving?

Click here for part one of this article

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