Smart Couples Finish Rich 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner

Why Smart Couples Are Taking Control of Their Financial Future I'll never forget the first fight I had with my wife Michelle over money. We were just back from our honeymoon, and the bliss of getting married was still in the air. Our new apartment looked great. We were incredibly excited to be starting our lives together. As Michelle began to unpack, I sat down at the kitchen table and started sorting through the mail. Since we'd been gone almost two weeks, there was a lot to go through. I began separating the important stuff from the junk mail, taking the bills that needed to be paid and placing them in piles. Nice, neat organized piles. In my mind, this bill-paying stuff would clearly be a nonissue. After all, both Michelle and I were financial professionals. I managed money for hundreds of couples; she helped corporate executives trade restricted stock. What's more, I'd spent the last five years teaching classes on financial management and had just started writing a book on money for women. Paying our bills and managing money as a couple were bound to be a breeze. Neat and Simple? As I sorted out the bills, I created a "David" pile and a "Michelle" pile. This was going to be so easy. I'd pay my bills (like my car payments and my cell phone) and Michelle would pay her bills (like her car and her cell phone). We'd split the household bills, which meant we needed a "we" pile. And . . . hmmm . . . who pays the insurance bills? Well, we'll figure that out. Maybe we also need a "to be discussed" pile. Let's see, that's four piles. Oh, here's a bill for the cleaning lady. I guess that could go in our "we" pile. But what about this American Express bill with all the honeymoon expenses on it? Well, the card's in my name and I guess it's pretty much the guy's job to pay for the honeymoon, so that should probably go in the "David" pile. Dry cleaning? Well, even though we now get our dry cleaning done at the same place, the account is in my name, so I guess I can pay it. Let's seehow much does this cost? No way . . . this can't be right! How could my dry-cleaning bill have tripled in a month? Michelle was in the bedroom organizing her closet. "Honey," I yelled to her, "do you know they charge $7 to dry-clean one of your sweaters? How can it cost so much to dry-clean women's clothing? And do you know you had them dry-clean seven sweaters this month? This is insane. We're going to have to get two dry-cleaning accounts, because I'm not paying these ridiculous prices for you." Michelle stopped what she was doing and came into the kitchen. "Of course I know it costs $7 to dry-clean a sweater," she said. She looked down at my nice, neat piles of bills. "Hey, what's with all this?" she asked. I grinned up at her. "Oh," I said, "I'm getting things organized. I'm separating our bills to see who pays what." Michelle looked at me a little strangely. "Honey, you don't need to waste your time doing that. This is going to be easy. We are going to put all of our money in a joint checking account and pay everything together." "We are?" "Of course we are. We're married now, we love each other, and from now on everything we have is one and everything we do as one." "Well, actually," I said, "that's not exactly what I had in mind." Sensing a little tension, I quickly added, "In the beginning at least, I think it might be easier if we sort of split this stuff up." "But David," Michelle replied, "you make more and spend more than I do. You can't expect us to just split all these bills down the middle." "Well, no, of course not," I said. "I thought I'd sort of split them up in a way that's fair." "Well, what'sBach, David is the author of 'Smart Couples Finish Rich 9 Steps to Creating a Rich Future for You and Your Partner', published 2001 under ISBN 9780767904834 and ISBN 0767904834.