financial planning

Tips to Manage Money Together as Newlyweds

When you are newly hitched and learning how to combine your essential legal and financial information as well as your accounts, it can be confusing.

Many people live together before getting married and have begun the process of combining accounts and sharing responsibilities. However, some people wait to do this only after marriage, and others wait until they're married to live together. Whichever path you've chosen, it's still crucial to know a few tips to manage money together as newlyweds to determine where you should begin and how you can remain on the same page.

Discussing Money Motivations

As we begin to share money with our significant other, we soon find out what one person may rank as a priority regarding money and the other may not. As such, sitting down and discussing money motivations is important. Two people who cannot agree on how to handle money may cause serious issues. This should include:

  • How to deal with money following payday. Is a percentage put into savings? Is that the day to splurge on dinner, drinks, and more?
  • The frequency and size of payments made to debts. Some people like to pay minimums, whereas others pay in full or make double payments.
  • What do you each consider money well spent? Is it a new 70" 4K television? Is it an investment? Is it paying as much debt off as possible?
  • How do you go about consulting each other before making purchases over a certain amount?

Establishing Financial Goals

After you evaluate the motivations behind your money and how it should be spent, you'll need to spend time together hashing out financial goals. As newlyweds, there are certain things on your list that you're going to want to save for. How do you go about that? How much of each paycheck will you dedicate to a particular fund?

Some things in the future worth making a financial plan for include savings and paying down debts. This is the time to be honest about your current financial standing. If you're looking to buy a home, you'll want to assemble a first-time homeowner financial checklist to begin to develop topics of conversation. Some of the things to consider setting goals for are:

  • Student loans
  • Car loans
  • Future children
  • A house
  • Medical bills
  • Delinquencies on credit reports
  • Vacation and rainy-day funds
  • Emergency funds

Budgeting Together

The more honest and open you can be with each other about the money you have and now the debts you share, the better. Implementing plans for the best ways to have the things that you both desire while still taking care of existing demands is important. These can be uncomfortable things to talk about; however, these conversations are necessary.

Following these tips to manage money together as newlyweds will allow you to have a starting point for conversations that can be tough to start. The sooner you and your partner get on the same page with finances and the responsibilities that come with them, the easier the transition will be and the sooner you'll find success.

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5 Financial Influencers Millennials Need to Follow

We use social media to keep up with the latest in the worlds of pop culture, politics, fashion, and music, so why not the world of finance? Whether you want to keep up with financial trends or get some quick money advice, we've gathered a list of five of the best personal finance influencers you need to follow.

1. J Money, Budgets Are Sexy

J. Money is a Mohawk rockin' husband and father who has been in the blogging business since 2008. His casual and easy to comprehend writing style makes learning about the financial world easy for anyone. J has received 12 industry awards and recently posted about his achievement of reaching a net worth over $1 million. If nothing else, you should at least follow him for his "dad worthy" money jokes!

Website / Twitter

2. Michele Schroeder-Gardner, Making Sense of Cents

Michele Schroeder-Gardner has been writing for her blog, Making Sense of Cents, since 2011 and has over 20 awards to show for it. She started her blog sharing how she paid off $38,000 in student loan debt in only 7 months. She now travels full-time. She's currently living on a sailboat with her husband. She shares best practices for paying off student loan debt along with some great tips for making money online. Plus, following her travel journeys is worth the follow alone!

Website / Twitter / Instagram

3. Erin Lowry, Broke Millennial

When I discovered Erin on Twitter, the first thing I noticed was her coined hashtag, #GYFLT (get your financial life together), which I naturally thought meant get your f***ing life together. The author of two books in the financial industry, Erin graduated from college debt-free and has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning, CNBC, and Fox and Friends. Upfront and hilarious, she breaks down the often confusing and scary finance world for Millennials.

Website / Twitter / Instagram

4. Tina Hay, Napkin Finance

What better way to guide you through the financial world than through pictures drawn on napkins? Tina is the founder and CEO of Napkin Finance, a site that makes money easy to understand through visualizations drawn on yes, you heard right, napkins! As their website so bluntly puts it, Napkin Finance is "everything you need to know about money in 30 seconds or less." Napkin Finance has collaborated with companies like JP Morgan, UBS, Michele Obama's Better Make Room Initiative, and the United States Olympic Committee. These bite-sized lessons make learning about money fun and quick.

Website / Twitter / Instagram

5. Lily, The Frugal Gene

Lily and her husband write for their blog, The Frugal Gene. She is a first-generation immigrant from China who was raised in San Francisco. Lily shares how her journey out of a life of poverty was the key motivator in attaining FIRE (financially independent, retiring early). Lily was able to pay off all of her student loan debt with only a part-time job in eight months! She shares interesting and unique tips on saving money, and she has been featured on The Cut, Rockstar Finance, Tiller Money, and Money.

Website / Twitter / Instagram

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How Negative Self-Talk Makes You Bad with Money

With finances being one of the most common sources of stress, anxiety-induced habits of negative self-talk and pessimistic thinking can affect how you deal with your money situation. As common as budgeting problems are, how you approach your personal finances can have a powerful effect on your money money management. From second-guessing your expenses to internalizing shame about spending money, these are the signs of negative self-talk and how you can improve your financial skills.

1. Identify what negative self-talk is to you

For some, it's a sense of creeping doubt that you don't have as strong a handle on your finances as you think. For others, it's pressure to live a lifestyle that isn't realistically feasible for you yet. In whatever form it takes, having an inner voice in your head that denigrates your own money instincts and abilities to learn better habits is a serious deterrent to your financial growth. Even if you were raised by a guardian who instilled in you anxieties over money, assess your own situation and your own habits realistically. Acknowledging your natural strengths is just as important as acknowledging your limitations.

2. Know your triggers

Psychology Todayemphasizes the importance of triggers of self-criticism, writing, "The critic is a voice that you have internalized based on outside influences and learning such as other people's criticism, expectations, or standards." Maybe you're more prone to question your financial skills around bills' due dates or in certain environments, like work or the bank. Keeping track of your negative thinking by jotting down notes in your phone or in a journal can identify the patterns that trigger the habit, which is the first step to changing your environment and controlling your responses to certain situations.

3. Talk about money

Speaking about your finances may feel Iike a social faux pas, but when it comes to your partner, close friends, or family members, you should be willing to open up and break the taboo. But as The New York Time details, "It's hard to learn about something when you're discouraged from talking about it. In that way, silence becomes a tool for oppression." Embarrassment and insecurity are common feelings everyone shares about money; discussing them in the open is more likely to relieve those fears than actualize them.

4. Think positively (and create a budget!)

After you've identified your patterns of negative thinking and you're willing to open up about your insecurities about money management, the final and most important step is to make positive change. Staying educated about the economy can help you stay affirmative about what you've achieved, which boosts your confidence when you sit down to plan for your realistic goals. Experts spoke to The New York Times about using budgeting apps to track and plan your spending. Looking to the future with a firm grasp on your bad habits and room to grow is the best anyone can hope for. As author and financial expert Kristin Wong says, "Even the 'experts' slip up every now and then, because to be bad with money is to be human. So don't be too hard on yourself."
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Costs of Living in the 10 Most Populated U.S. Cities

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As much as living in major U.S. cities is glorified in TV and film, the reality can be untenable for most American families. Depending on on one's marital status, health care, child care, transportation, and needs for every day sustenance, some cities are twice as expensive as others just to satisfy basic living necessities. Experts used MIT's living wage calculator to assess the minimum income required to live in these 10 major cities. The calculations are based on a family of two adults and one child, and they don't include any leftover funds for dining out at restaurants, taking vacations, or adding to savings. Additionally, banking experts used the 50-30-20 rule (50% necessities, 20% savings, 30% disposable income) to assess what incomes are necessary to live comfortably in these major cities, including perks like dining out and putting money aside for the future.

1. New York

Living wage: $67,817

Living comfortably: $99,667

The Big Apple certainly has one of the highest rents in the country, averaging $2,295 a month. Groceries and healthcare also contribute to a high cost of living.

2. Los Angeles

Living wage: $65,963

Living comfortably: $87,260

With rent averaging $2,050 a month, property costs consistently present a challenge for affordable living. There's currently a $51,538 difference between median income and what's needed to I've comfortably.

3. Chicago

Living wage $59,215

Living comfortably: $76,086

Chicago's sprawling public transit system gives the city the second-lowest transportation costs among the 50 most populated cities in the U.S.

4. Boston

Living wage: $55,777

Living comfortably: $88,967

With rent averaging $2,100 a month, property and food costs are especially high in Boston. However, the city has one of the lowest annual transportation costs.

5. Atlanta

Living wage: $50,049

Living comfortably: $76,049

Atlanta's recent tech boom is also driving up costs of living. Unfortunately, this means there's about a $26,651 difference between median household income and the minimum salary to "live comfortably."

6. Philadelphia

Living wage: $55,600

Live comfortably: $73,005

Housing is the most expensive aspect of living in Philadelphia, with the median cost of a home averaging $147,000.

7. Denver

Living wage: $56,258

Live comfortably: $77,562

Not too long ago Denver was considered the fastest growing city in the U.S, which drove the cost of living higher. Now the difference between median income and a comfortable salary is still over $20,000.

8. Austin

Living wage: $54,638

Live comfortably: $73,163

Between 2017 and 2018, Austin's booming popularity sparked a large spike in cost of living. Transportation costs and healthcare are particularly expensive.

9. San Francisco

Living wage: $78,386

Live comfortably: $123,268

Out of the 50 most populated U.S. cities, San Francisco is the most expensive. With an average cost of $3,300 per month for rent, that's almost $40,000 a year for property alone.

10. Portland

Living wage: $58,423

Live comfortably: $79,397

After a recent explosion in popularity, the cost of living in Portland has risen with higher rent and property costs. Additionally, transportation is particularly expensive to get around the sprawling city.

When you're contemplating re-locating or settling down for the first time, the cost of living you should budget for can vary wildly depending on your family size, your vocation, and your needs. Consider your health care costs, means of transportation, and whether you plan to rent or own before you commit to a new city.

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