If you spend it... track it...

On Casey's blog this morning was one of the simplest and most helpful financial tips you'll ever read: Don't buy it if you can't afford it.

That just gets right to the point doesn't it? Like all good tips it's also just plain common sense. Unfortunately, common sense isn't always very common.

I hope this is just the first of many upcoming Monday tips from Casey. We all need a common sense reminder from time to time and what better time than Mondays?

Without being presumptuous, I'd like to add my own tip (or four) to Casey's. These are things that have helped us over the years, maybe somebody else will find them useful as well.

1. Be completely transparent with your spouse (and even your kids) about your spending.

Never, ever, ever (!) spend money that your spouse doesn't know about. OK, so trips to the grocery or for gas are just a part of living and we can expect those. But for anything out of the ordinary your spouse should know before-hand. Whether it's a pile of computer parts or a new pair of shoes it's just plain polite to let your spouse know that you're about to relocate some funds.

2. It's not "my" money, it's "our" money.

We have never, ever had separate accounts. I know this is a popular thing for lots of couples: "his money" / "her money". I've even known couples that alternate paying the utilities from separate accounts. I don't get this at all. When a man and a woman are married they become one. That doesn't say "they become one -- except for their money." (And, actually, it's God's money... He's just letting us keep track of it for a while.)

3. If you spend it -- track it.

We've done this for our entire relationship. We've used paper & pencil, Quicken, spreadsheets... you name it. The only thing we don't track is the cash in our pocket. We get our "allowance" every week and use it for our lunches. Everything else, though, is tracked to the penny. The checking account is cross-balanced between the bank's website, Quicken's register and my projection spreadsheet. Likewise for the credit card. We triple-check every six-pence going in our out of our pockets.

4. Forecast the future.

I rambled on about this in my last post so I won't go into the details here. The gist of it is that you should have a rough idea today of what your cash-flow will look like 12 months from now. You simply cannot make wise purchasing decisions unless you know how they are going to affect your future.



OK, that's it for my top tips. I feel like I'm jumping on the financial bandwagon here with my friend's Casey & Brad but this is important stuff. More couples argue about money than any single other thing. Guess what? We do to -- about once a year... There's a reason my first two points are about communication; if you communicate about your finances then you're a lot less likely to argue about 'em.