Managing your money and planning for the future can be an extremely gratifying experience. My wife and I revisit our financial plans often and we enjoy doing it, it allows us to dream about building our custom home, taking exotic vacations, as well as many other fun things that we are going to accomplish. Having a shared financial vision is important. If you were the CEO of a company and your CFO (Chief Financial Officer) did not have a clear vision of what you were trying to accomplish you wouldn't have a very good chance of reaching your financial goals, would you?
I have found from talking to 1,000's of couples while doing mortgages that a majority of the time the wife handles the bills, budgeting, and money management. I personally like to handle the money management myself, but to each thier own. Thier is nothing wrong with one person handling the money management, but both of you should know where you are on your path to your dreams. By each of you knowing where you are at you can better know how to get to where you are going.
Managing money in your marriage is extremely important for your financial health as well as a long lasting and happy marriage. Individuals often pick up thier money habits as well as thier relationship habits from a mother or father figure. In a relationship honesty, trust, and respect are just as important as the love each of you has for one another. If you are honest with your partner from the beginning of the relationship about your financial habits and situation you show them that you are honest and avoid a conflict later. Effective communication is paramount to any successful relationship.
One of the topics that is discussed in the above video that I don't agree with 100% is to not share your debt. If they are trying to say don't add your spouse to a debt then I agree except for certain situations when adding someone to a mortgage may be necessary. I think as a general rule of thumb this may be a good idea, but there may be times when it would make sense to transfer some debt to a lower interest rate that may available to one partner, but not the other.
Every financial plan should have a contingency plan for the possibility that one spouse may pass away prematurely. That is right the neccesary evil, life insurance. I've always thought very negatively of life insurance, because I am invincible and that would never happen to me. You think this until you know someone who loses thier spuse and they have no insurance to help them trough this already tough time. I have also met someone who had insurance and you can see how their health and quality of life is markedly better.
I recommend having a long-term plan, a mid-term plan, and a short-term plan as well as giving yourslef monthly checkpoints to track your progress towards your financial goals. Pay special attention to your Net Worth, Cash Flow and ROI for your investments. By focusing on these you will increase them!!!