Lately I feel like I’ve been stuck in a season of waiting. My husband and I have been dreaming of putting down roots in the Pacific Northwest since the first time we visited Oregon seven years ago. While we are just months away from making that goal a reality – we hope to buy a house sometime this summer – we are still in transition. In addition to waiting as we search for the right house, I spent the fall waiting to get an appointment with a doctor about a health concern I was dealing with, spent the winter waiting for medical tests, and am now spending the spring waiting to fully recover from surgery.
It’s not uncommon for couples to have an income gap between partners – in fact, it's the norm. According to data from Morning Consult and Insider, nearly three-quarters of Americans reported they had some income imbalance with their partner before they started dating. And while that imbalance can flip-flop as partners change jobs or receive a raise or bonus, at times it can be significant. This might happen when one partner retires, decides to go back to school, or opts to stay at home with the kids. This might also happen when one partner gets a big promotion or receives a large inheritance. How can you manage your finances so this imbalance in income doesn’t throw your relationship off balance? Consider these steps:
I’m a big fan of the Financial Feminist podcast. A few weeks ago the host, Tori Dunlap, shared a money hack that she had heard about from another financial educator on Science Finance: Before making an impulse purchase, ask yourself: “How many ‘taco dollars’ does it cost?” That particular financial educator really loved tacos, so he judged each purchase by asking, “How many tacos could I buy for the cost of that item?” Concert tickets: 20 tacos. Cupcake: 1 taco. Fancy hotel stay: 83 tacos. Then, he would ask himself: “Is it really worth that many tacos?”
My last post on things that can jumpstart your financial life in 5 minutes or less got me thinking about one of the most effective steps I ever took during our marriage: asking my husband an icebreaker question about our life together. That word icebreaker is key: these are questions designed to get conversation going, not shut it down. And that means the question has to be open-ended and asked with a spirit of genuine curiosity of learning what your partner thinks.
Long-time readers of this blog are familiar with the four money personalities I discuss: the giver, the saver, the spender, and the acquirer. Over time, though, I’ve learned that while people tend to understand the first three, they often stumble over the last one. On first blush, people generally thought the “acquirer” referred to someone who liked to accumulate or collect things. However, that couldn’t be further from the truth. The acquirer was someone focused on how money came into their life, not what was done with the money after it was received.
Should debt repayment always be your number one priority? Some financial wellness experts have made a living by helping people put their debt repayment above just about everything else in their life. But I respectfully disagree with them. I’m not so sure debt repayment should always be your number one priority.
I’ll never forget the spring of 2012 when I graduated seminary, started my first full-time job, and fully realized the extent of my student loan debt all in the span of two weeks. Up until that point, my student loan debt hadn’t seemed like much of a concern since it had been in deferment while I was in graduate school. But, the second I was done, my loans were there waiting for me — all of my debt from college and a small loan from graduate school, totaling about $35,000.
A couple years ago, my husband and I decided to buy a new TV. Ours was on the fritz and it was approaching the Super Bowl so TVs were on deep discount at Costco. While we hadn’t planned on this expense, between the cushion in our budget and some savings, we were able to pay for the TV out of pocket. But what if we had put this amount on a credit card?
I have to admit that I didn’t give my student loans very much thought until I graduated from graduate school. By that point, I had been accruing debt for nearly six years. In college, even though I knew there was debt involved, I lived blissfully unaware of how much I was really racking up in the background between tuition and living expenses. By the time I got to graduate school, and had the reality check that most college seniors get during their final month before graduation, I was paying a little more attention and tried very hard to be extra careful about my budget so I added as little as possible to my college debt. But still most days, it didn’t register on my financial radar screen.
A few weekends ago, I attend the BossedUp Trainer Certification Program with a bunch of other amazing entrepreneurs, side hustlers, and all around boss ladies. During lunch, I sat next to another trainer who asked: “What do you recommend for people with student loan debt? This is a critical issue and it doesn’t seem like many financial advisors are paying attention to it.” I have to agree. While most financial professionals understand that student loan debt is a critical issue not many people in the financial industry have a lot of recommendations for how to handle this debt well.
Welcome back to our brief series on credit cards! Two weeks ago I took a look at how to evaluate whether or not you really need a credit card, and last week I explored some things to consider as you choose your card. This week, we’re exploring what to do if you end up carrying a balance on your card (or cards) and need some assistance getting out of debt.
Step 1: Know what you owe
I know it may seem obvious but it’s important that you have a solid understanding of what you owe before you can make a plan to pay it off. When you’re in trouble it can be easy to get so overwhelmed by fear that you avoid taking the first step. Avoiding the problem won’t make it go away. Facing it head on, with all of the facts on the table, is the first key to success. You’ll want to know the interest rate, total balance, minimum payment amount, and the balance due date.