If you hold a hit parade of the reasons why there are quarrels in the family, then financial issues will definitely take one of the prizes in it. Finding a common language in the distribution and budgeting is much more difficult than finding mutual understanding in other, sometimes much more subtle, matters. Especially if you and your partner have completely different views on this. Therefore, we want to introduce you to some tips that may be useful to you when solving financial issues both in the family and with business partners.
Before you get involved in the struggle over financial decisions, try to understand the prerequisites of your partner's behavior. What family did he grow up in? Maybe he/she was taught from childhood to take care of every penny? Or vice versa — there was never a need in the house and the person did not know the refusal of any of his desires? Very often we unconsciously copy the patterns of behavior learned in childhood for our adult life and this can be the key to understanding the behavior of a partner in financial matters.
There is nothing more valuable than mutual trust in such matters, no matter whether it concerns maintaining a common budget in the family or joint ownership of a large company. It can be really difficult, because sometimes we are so drawn to buy something for ourselves without informing our partner about the expenses, and a sweet voice sounds in our head that no one will notice anything. However, remember that money comes and goes, but trust gets very hard, and is lost in a moment. And yes, «everything secret sooner or later becomes clear» — it's really true.
Most disagreements in the family about money usually arise on the basis of the fact that one of the partners does not like how the other manages the funds. Anger and quarrels about «stupid purchases » and « unnecessary expenses » occur all the time, bringing not only mutual irritation, but also threatening the continued existence of the family. However, all these troubles can be easily avoided if each family member has a certain, pre-agreed amount of money that he can spend on his beloved. You can spend this amount at one time, or you can save up for a certain period and buy something large. The main thing is that the rules of the game should be worked out jointly and strictly observed by both.
If you find that you and your partner are constantly arguing about money, then it's time to put this in order. Sit down once a week together and discuss your budget for the past week. Plan an approximate plan for the next one. Figure out where the money comes from and where it eventually goes. This not only helps to keep your budget under control, but also gives rise to mutual trust, a sense of responsibility, helps to develop common goals, that is, exactly what we talked about in the previous paragraphs.
Get into the habit of writing down your expenses and income. This will help you not only collect data for a detailed analysis of the structure of your cash flows, but also keep you from making spontaneous thoughtless purchases. There are a huge number of applications for keeping records of your embezzlement, some of them we talk about in our Personal Finance about-everything section.wiki.
Hopefully, these tips will help you achieve harmony in such a complex area as financial relations. The main thing to remember is that openness, honesty and understanding will help you avoid some tension that may arise if you start talking about money.
