Who’s in Charge of the Money in Your Home?

According to a recent women and money study women take control of making financial decisions in 19% of households that participated in the study, while 38% of husbands said that they take control of financial decision making.*

The study also revealed the following numbers about just who is in control of the money:

35% of women said that they equally share control of financial decisions, but 21% of the husbands said that they share equal control of financial decisions.

25% of the women said that they make financial decisions with input from husbands, while 35% of the men said they make financial decisions without input from their spouse.

The recent Financial Woman Women and Money Survey showed that the large majority of married participants completely manage both the finances and investing decisions in their home. There were a number of cases where spouses were not on the same page, clearly making achievement of financial goals much more challenging and stressful.

For Financial Woman readers who are married, my suggestion is to start at the top with a process outlined in my book, Earn, Grow, Give. (You can also grab a free chapter there!) Here is how it works; each of you spends 10 minutes writing out what you most what in your life that will come as a result of money. Then individually share your desires without interruption from the other spouse.

This quick process will lay the foundation for moving forward; it moves you out the the grudge of financial chores and into inspired outcome mode. Create your financial goals together based on what most matters to you in life. As crazy as it seems, you may not really know what each other really wants that your money can buy.

It’s not so much who is doing which financial task at any given life phase, but it’s important to always be involved so that each partner knows what’s going on, and can easily step in and manage things when the needs arises. (Not IF, but when!) Also, this will ensure that you work together as a team toward common goals, making fulfillment of your financial goals not only quicker, but also smoother along the way.

 

*Source: Prudential