Being part of a couple means that you’ve committed to each other. You share your lives, which includes your finances. However, since you’re two different people still, it can be difficult to merge your lifestyles in this way without careful communication. Here are some reasons why all couples need to budget together.
Know Your Combined Income
While you know how much you make, do you know how much your partner makes? If the two of you are sharing expenses like rent, groceries, and heating, you need to know how much each person is able to contribute to it. Finances can be tricky, so your budget is essential. If you don’t know how much money is coming in from both of you, you’re not going to have an accurate budget.
Make sure you’re including all income, even if you or your partner isn’t currently working. For instance, an injury might keep you out of work. If you’re injured on the job, you have 20 days from the date of the accident to tell your employer about the injury you sustained. Then you might have workers’ compensation money to put toward your combined income for a while.
Make Plans Together
Since you both live in your home, you both need to be involved in making plans for it. For instance, your power bill might have gone up over the past few months. Energy use in the U.S. doubles every twenty years and you might need to cut back on your own use in order to afford it. In this case, you and your partner need to make a decision together. If one person is careful with the electricity while the other is not, all that’s going to happen is the person being careful will get frustrated. You need to budget together in order to make plans for situations like these. If you both agree on what needs to be done, it is more likely to actually work.
Find All of Your Bills
While your monthly bills are likely to all be accounted for, the two of you might have bills of your own that need to be covered. For instance, you might visit an urgent care clinic at one point without your partner’s knowledge. The UCA says that urgent care clinics have about 89 million patients annually. If you’re one of them, you’ll have to pay a bill for your treatment. If you aren’t budgeting together, you might find that bills like this slip through the cracks. This can lead to frustrations and late fees. Avoid these things by bringing all of your bills to the table and making sure that they are paid for together.
Stay On the Same Page
If you aren’t communicating about your finances, you’re not going to be able to stay financially healthy. You’re likely to have different needs, wants, and priorities from each other, which means you’ll have different approaches to your money. If your approaches clash, there is no way you can sustain your lifestyle without budgeting together. When you have to actually do your budget out, you can make necessary compromises and make sure that both of you know what to do. Make budgeting part of your schedule. If the two of you can meet in person to discuss your finances and figure out what needs to get done, you can make sure that you’re on the same page about it. This will save you a lot of frustration.
Finances are important and can cause a lot of friction in relationships. However, you can reduce these arguments and improve your situation by doing your budget together. That way, you both know exactly what you need to do and where you stand.