What are the ways your relationship may be at risk due to money matters? Last week we featured how your credit rating can be at risk when you enter joint debt. This week, we look at how your relationship in general can be impacted by finances. To follow we feature a great article from SavingsGuide.com.au, titled ‘Relationship Finance: The Top 4 Romance Busters’. Here it is in it’s entirety:

Relationship Finance: The Top 4 Romance Busters.

Money is the major reason for divorce, as well as the major source of friction in many relationships. Researchers are increasingly seeing that ‘financial cheating’- as in, lying or hiding financial issues from a partner- is as damaging as the traditional kind. Likewise, finding a financial simpatico with another person is one of the major pillars of a good relationship. So what are the top 4 relationship busters when it comes to money, and how can we avoid them in our own relationship? Inspired by an article from Investopedia.

 Weigh Me Down

It’s unlikely, in the modern world, that two people can come together without one or both bringing with them some kind of debt. From youthful indiscretions with a credit card, student debt, a mortgage, a car loan- debt is a major factor in most of our financial arrangements. Sadly, when it’s not dealt with openly, it can also be a major sticking point i our relationships. The Fix: The only course is to be straight up. This debt is going to be a drain on your finances for a while yet, and will mean you can contribute less to the joint finances. That’s the reality of the scenario, and honesty is the only way to approach it. Your partner will deal with it, or they won’t.

Joint Or Separate

 Relationship finance is often regarded as a tell-tale sign for the overall wellbeing of the couple. Serious judgement calls are attached to how couples deal with their finances. Either they split everything, and “they’re not committed”, or they’re completely financially entangled, and “heading for disaster”. Trying to organise your finances according to what the rest of the world says will only strain the relationship. The Fix: Your relationship is unique, as your financial organisation should be. The key is to communicate with your partner about what they feel is appropriate, and be open to change it as the relationship evolves.

 Know The Type

 When you get together, nothing is more important than whether he likes Neil Young or not. We tend to spend so much time on the inconsequential, often the really big issues get left to the side. However, you’ll be able to get a pretty good feel for how a person deals with money. Spender? Saver? Frugal to the point of no fun? These are big issues, and pretending otherwise is just putting your head in the sand. The Fix: Be open with how you see money, and where you would like your finances to be in 5 and 10 years. Talk about how their parents dealt with money, research shows it’s a big indicator.

 Little Tykes

 Every self-help book in the world has told us what issues to avoid talking about when we start a relationship. Heaven forbid you scare him off, talking of kids or money. Well, the final major relationship buster is a combination of the two- the finances of having kids. The Fix: Generally, you ascertain whether you want to have kids first, but with the costs of raising a kid now hitting the $1 million mark, you also have to discuss how to structure your finances to adapt, especially with one partner out of the workforce for a while.

As we discover in this post, and also last week in the post ‘How to Avoid Sexually Transmitted Debt’ the most important aspect to the meeting of financial minds is to keep an open dialogue about money. Talking freely and honestly, preferably keeping the emotion out of your discussions will save your relationship. It would also help you to avoid surprise bad credit from your partner.

If you have Sexually Transmitted Debt  – that is defaults, writs or Judgments that you didn’t initiate, and you believe are impacting your credit file unnecessarily, talk to one of our Credit Repair Advisors about where you might stand with getting your bad credit repaired. Ph 1300 667 218.

By Graham Doessel, Founder and CEO of MyCRA Credit Rating Repair and www.fixmybadcredit.com.au.

Image: David Castillo Dominici/ www.FreeDigitalPhotos.net