An Alarming Statistic

In the pamphlet, "One For The Money', Elder Marvin J. Ashton gave these statistics:

"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."

That was 35 years ago, before credit was in abundant supply in our country. I believe that these stats are probably worse now.

"One For The Money" is great for all families can be ordered free through Church Distribution or downloaded here.

Weekly Planning Sessions

In The Millionaire Next Door, the author says that people who become wealthy allocate twice the number of hours per week to planning their finances as those who do not become wealthy.  The way they allocate their time is consistent with their intentions of enhancing their net worth.  If you put adequate time into your finances each week, you will be come more self-reliant!

CHALLENGE: Have a scheduled weekly financial planning meeting.

Have it at the same time each week so that you always remember. Your financial planning meeting should include your spouse (even if you are the family "budgeteer", it's important that your spouse know the plan and how you want to accomplish it.  More on marriage and money later).

Things you might include in your meeting:

• What have we spent money on this week?  Is it consistent with our budget?
• Have we paid tithing this week? Have we paid ourselves?
  
• Do we have any outstanding bills that need to be paid?
• Are we working toward paying off debt?
  
• Are we on track to meet our goals?
• How is our retirement savings going (which you should start in your 20's, by the way!)
• Is our investment framework consistent with our investment goals?
• Are our cash accounts balanced?
• Has anything come up that would require an adjustment to our budget?