If two partners in a company have opposite objectives, the company probably won’t be successful. The same is true in a marriage. If one spouse wants to spend and incur debt, and the other spouse wants to save and not spend, conflicts will arise. You need to be on the same page. You need to agree on common goals. Here’s how:
Start by discussing your goals. Do you want to buy a house? A new car? Take a vacation? Put your children through college? Save for retirement? If you can agree on long term goals, that’s a great start.
How, put some dollars figures with the goals. For example: In four years we want to buy a house, and we want to save a $40,000 down payment. Good. That means you need to save $10,000 per year. If you contribute the money to your RRSP and get a tax refund, and put your tax refund back into your RRSP and use that money for the down payment under the New Home Buyer’s plan, you probably need to save around $600 per month (depending on your tax bracket, and what you earn in your RRSP). If you both agree, set it up an automatic savings plan so that $600 every month is transferred to your RRSP.
Then decide on your other goals, one by one. Once the big decisions are made, the rest is easy.
One final point: Allow some “wiggle room” in your budget. Each of you should have some money each month you can spend however you want; don’t try to budget every penny, because that may lead to resentment and ultimately failure of the budgetprocess.
