Money and Marriage

 How important is money in marriage? According to Elder Marvin J. Ashton thinks it is incredibly important. In One for the Money Guide to Family finance he says “How important are money management and finances in marriage and family affairs? May I respond, tremendously. The American Bar Association has indicated that 89 percent of all divorces can be traced to quarrels and accusations over money. Others have estimated that 75 percent of all divorces result from clashes over finances. Some professional counselors indicate that four out of five families are strapped with serious money problems.” When preparing for marriage and while focusing on the stability of your marriage it is important to highly consider how finances can affect and or hinder your relationship. Getting advice from a trusted and educated source can help to make sure that you are on the right track. 

People can have many different kinds of financial struggles. Some of these can include, lack of money, poor communication about money, and misuse of family funds. Elder Ashton says, "May I at this time hasten to emphasize the fact that these marriage tragedies are not caused simply by lack of money, but rather by the mismanagement of personal finances.” Elder Ashton gives some advice about finances. There are 12 things that he says can help pay an honest tithing, learn to manage your money before it manages you, learn self-discipline, use a budget, learn and teach the powers of working and earning, teach children to earn money, have each family contribute, make education a continuing process, work toward home ownership, use insurance programs, understand the influence of external forces, and use food storage and emergency preparedness.  

It is also important to remember to stay on top of your finances. You don’t what to let things slide until it is too hard to come back from that. Michel De Groote said: People also can't wait for problems such as missed payments to force them into action, VanderToolen said. By then, many options would disappear. If people need to restructure their loans, they need to have good credit. "They think they have time and everything is going to work out," he said. "These days there is no room for give in lending anymore."

A budget is a great way to help your family manage finances. A budget is “an estimate of income and expenditure for a set period of time.” De Groote says “The budget is built from the information gathered from taking the inventory. Seeing the actual expenses and the actual income makes it easier to cut where needed. And the cuts keep coming until the budget is balanced. "Cash flow is simple," VanderToolen said. "Money in. Money out. You can't spend more than you make."” 

Having a family can take a lot of work. Cheri Loveless said “Caring for our large family kept all of us busy most of the time. Mother was the overseer of the inside work, and Dad the outside, but I also remember seeing my father sweep floors, wash dishes, and cook meals when his help was needed. As children we often worked together, but not all at the same task.” It is important to help one another when it comes to all task in a family and a marriage. It is extremely important to remember to involve everyone in the decisions. It is important to talk to each other about all of the financial decision that are to be made. This can help to resolve and avoid many conflict that could arise. Being smart financially can help a marriage a lot.