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.
FSA or HSA? Low deductible plans or high deductible plans? Copays, coinsurance, deductibles? All the terminology can make it challenging to select a plan that’s a good fit for your needs. That’s why so many people end up blindly choosing a plan because “it sounds good,” it’s what their co-workers chose, it looks the best on paper, or it’s the cheapest.
This week’s post is a shout out to some of my older readers who’ve begged me to dig into this topic. To my younger readers, I encourage you to keep reading. Knowing the basics of Medicare can help you better understand your parents’ and grandparents’ health plans, but it may also help you better understand some of the issues that come to the surface in the upcoming 2020 election.
You may wonder why a financial educator would cover the topic of Medicare – doesn’t that fall into the health care arena? It does, but health care is also a financial concern especially when you’re nearing retirement age. When I lead retirement seminars, the two biggest questions that come up are: Do I have enough money to retire? How will health care work and how much will it cost? Let’s dig in to learn a little more about that second question.
The health care system can be really confusing — and the costs associated with your health care can be even more confusing. In this week’s post, I want to help you understand some key health insurance terms as well as how different elements work together to pay for some of your health care expenses.
Prior to my husband’s car accident last spring, we rarely used our health insurance. Over the first three years of our marriage, we collectively spent about $1,500 out of our own pocket (if that) on health care — including an ER visit. Since the accident, I’ve become more well-versed in the health care system and seen in action how our insurance has stepped in to cover much of our costs. I can’t say I find the system as a whole any less complicated, but knowing the basic terminology and processes has been invaluable as we’ve sorted through the bills.
