Did you get engaged this past Valentine’s Day? If you haven’t already, wedding planning will commence and so will important financial decisions that come with it. According to the American Institute of CPAs, financial issues cause weekly stress for nearly one-third of couples. Wedding planning should be an exciting journey for you and your significant other. Allstate offers these tips to help you get started.
Work together to create a budget. Think of creating a household budget as creating a foundation for a healthy marriage and strong finances. Set aside time to discuss your finances as couple to review what weekly spending is and how you can keep it within reasonable means.
Make finances fun. Try pairing financial discussions with an extra special homemade dinner or do something fun like go out for dessert. Make weekend plans to go see a movie as a reward for meeting your spending and saving goals!
Use your budget to solve problems. Are you using a budget tracker? Mint.com and You Need a Budget are great budgeting tools to help keep you on track and help you find areas of improvement. Perhaps you notice that you’re over budget because you were overspending in the “Dining Out” category. Once you are aware of the area of overspending, you can take the necessary steps to cut back and improve.
Work as a team. Two brains are better than one, so consider bouncing ideas off each other to brainstorm how you can cut spending and save money as a couple. If you are not seeing eye to eye, consider bringing in a local financial professional to help sort it out. Remember that you two are a team and are in this together!
