How to optimise financial planning with your life partner

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Marriage is an equal partnership, a merger, or a union. You and your spouse not only need to communicate on all major issues including lifestyle choices, parenting, etc. but also money. In fact, money issues are among the major reasons marriages fail.

Mrin Agarwal, founder of Finsafe talks about how families can plan on their budget and finances in their day-to-day life and at the time of crisis.

Abhishek Mall: My wife and I have different portfolios. Is this the right strategy? Both of us are competitive and we often discuss whose portfolio is growing more?

Agarwal: Yes portfolio should be different if your sources of income are also different. I like the fact that you and your wife engage in healthy competition on who’s portfolio will grow more, which is good.

Sushmita Upadhyay, Ahemdabad: I and my husband are both salaried. In the future, we would want to start our own business. We have a good salary but we are not able to save anything. We want to start a family and also go on our dream vacation, what should we do?

Agarwal: So, you need to engage in planning on all aspects and not only financial. First foremost you have to prioritize your goals. Whether you have to start a family, set up a business, or go on a dream vacation. The savings issue is a very contentious issue which most couples find difficult to figure out. You should make a list of your expenditure that happen in a month, and check what are your essential and nonessential expenses. You should have a discretionary budget, where you also have assigned some fun expenses.

Latha Sahoo, Bangalore: Post-marriage I discovered that my husband has outstanding due on a personal loan and credit card loan. As a couple how can we reduce the debt burden together?

Agarwal: First thing is you need to have an absolute idea of your partner’s financial habits, obligations, loans, etc. So, he has to come clean on all of his financial loans, not only about loans but all spending and habits. He needs to be truthful about that. You need to figure out the extent of loan, and its repayment.