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Personal relationships can be similar to your personal finances. Your relationships take plenty of work, plotting, communication, understanding, goal setting, deposits and withdrawals. Your finances need the exact same kind of work, organization, understanding, goal setting, deposits and withdrawals. The two are entirely connected in many ways and if one encounters some form of difficulty the other could be adversely affected. Here are a number of ways you can manage your money and your relationships and watch both grow amazingly together.

GOAL SETTING: Where will you be in 5 or 10 years? This could be a wonderful conversation starter for you and your life partner. The fantastic thing about this question is money management can easily be associated with goals for the relationship. Your spouse might not be content with his or her current occupation and has thoughts of opening his or her own business or plotting to go back to university. Together you could talk about what steps need to be taken to accommodate each others hopes and dreams and not sink the financial boat. If you maintain this line of discussion open you will be able to set realistic goals in money and in life.

COMMUNICATION: This is likely the most vital requirement for every excellent relationship. Because most misunderstandings are about money it is wise to keep an open line of conversation in everything else so that talking about finances will come naturally. That means that any huge buy should be thoroughly discussed. Imagine how annoyed you would be if your partner came home one day with a $1500 plasma T.V. or a fifteen hundred dollar dress or $1500 in penny stocks. If you can talk about money, that would be one less thing that could result in a fight. Communication is key in relationships and in financial plotting as well. By now, hopefully you are getting the point that I was trying to make, which is how personal relationships can be similar to your personal finances.

JOINT ACCOUNT: The age ancient question. Some feel that having a joint bank account is vital because it displays a huge degree of trust. Others feel that it is vital to keep the personal finances separate from the relationship due to the freedom it allows. The issue is it can cause disruptions in your relationship. Why not have both? First you should figure out is what your expenses are and what is left over for pleasure. I reckon a simple formula to follow is each of you takes twenty percent from the paycheck each week to deposit into a personal account. That cash is yours and yours alone. You might use it to buy a nice pair of shoes, baseball tickets or whatever you desire. The left over eighty percent is place in a joint account that will cover living expenses like food, mortgage, retirement plotting, car payments etc.. That way if you want to treat yourself, you will be using your money to do so.

STAY ON THE SAME PAGE: This is very vital. Know what’s going on. One of you may know a lot more about personal finances. There is nothing more exciting in a relationship then learning with eachother and knowing the same things. If you both know where the money is going, how it is being invested and what investments you should make there will always be an understanding. There is small more upsetting than when one partner makes a solo choice and loses a lot. If you constantly inform each other about financial opportunities and financial decisions it will be more hard to make silly errors. As the saying goes, two minds are better than one.

I hope you can see how personal relationships can be similar to your personal finances. It is unavoidable that you will encounter problems and probably won’t see eye to eye with your partner about everything. Finances are one conflict that can easily be avoided with an open line of communication, goal setting, plotting and understanding. If you and your partner can talk honestly when it comes to finances and have the right plot in place, your relationship with each other and with money will grow stronger and stronger each day.