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Family Financial Meetings

Sit down at least once a year, preferably more, throughout your marriage to have an involved discussion about your finances. Don't wait until crisis time to review and plan. That can lead to much more stress and general anxiety associated with financial discussions. Instead, your annual financial discussion allows you both to calmly and rationally assess where you are, determine if your financial goals have changed, and decide what you need to do to meet your goals. If you have this discussion more than once a year, you'll be that much more financially in sync.

Other topics of discussion should include:

• Important Documents You both should know exactly where all your important documents are located including insurance policies, wills, tax forms, bank account numbers, investment specifics and more.
• Current Debts and Assets Add up all of your debts. See how much you have paid off in the past year and decide if that's acceptable or if you need to try harder in the coming year. Do the same with assets. Understand how your money is working for you and try to determine if it should be working harder.
• Budget Get an idea of what you've been spending your money on. If your spending doesn't match your priorities, fine tune your budget to help you get the most out of your income.
• Re-evaluate Your Goals Revisit the financial goals you made in the last annual meeting. Are you moving toward those goals? Do those goals still matter to you? Are there other short-term or long-term goals you might wish to discuss?
• Find Your Vulnerability Find the weak links on your financial armor. Do you have too much debt? Is your revenue source (jobs, income) secure? Do you have insufficient income to cover your spending? Just identifying these weaknesses can help you avoid some pitfalls. But you should also talk about how you can strengthen these areas and incorporate these strategies into your financial goals.
• Day-to-day Responsibilities Is the division of responsibilities you made still practical? Is it working out or does one person feel overburdened?
• Learning About Yourself What have you learned about yourself regarding financial matters over the last year? Sharing your attitudes toward money with each other may help you understand how to better manage your finances.