For newly married couples, financial planning is important to set priorities and evaluate needs. Short term planning includes insurance, savings of 6 months income, assets like cars and homes, and incidental expenses. Medium term includes real estate, children's education, and retirement plans. Long term focuses on higher education, assessing retirement funds, estate planning, and post-retirement expenses. It is advised to discuss finances openly, set monetary goals together, manage accounts jointly or individually, create budgets, have regular money meetings, take measured risks, build emergency funds, and trust each other. Financial planning helps fulfill goals but flexibility is also needed to adjust to life changes.
2. Why Financial Planning is Important?
• Being newly married attracts a lot of financial
responsibility, for which an adequate planning is
necessary.
• The assistance of a Certified Financial Planner or
CFP professional can help to set up priorities and
evaluate the needs young couples.
3. Time frame for Financial Planning:
• Short term- Buy insurance, Accumulate savings (Income of 6 months is generally
used as a yardstick), Purchase assets (car, house etc.), Incidental expenses
(vacations, monthly expenses etc.).
• Medium term: Realty investment, Children's education, Streamline retirement
plan.
• Long term: Children's higher education, Assess retirement corpus and liquidity,
Estate planning, Expenses after retirement.
Financial Planning for Newlyweds
4. Advantages & Disadvantages of
Financial Planning
• While being careful with your finances is important and financial
planning is equally necessary, one cannot prepare expect life to turn out
as planned on papers.
• Financial planning for newly married couples assist in fulfilling the
economic goals and easing fiscal burden, but preparing oneself
realistically for sudden changes or disruptions in life is also important.
• A strict financial chart for your life will bring discipline, but do not overdo
otherwise you will miss out on several crucial opportunities.
• For example: you had some investment plans done, but the one you
finalized on is no more beneficial due to some changes in regulations of
the investment tools. At that moment, you need to target the next best
option than going ahead with chalked out plan.
5. Best Tips For Managing Finances
Here are some tips for newlyweds to handle their finances:
• Discuss your finances
• Set monetary goals
• Managing bank accounts
• Chalk out a budget
• Set monetary goals
• Get-together to say ‘money’
• Take the right amount of risk
• Create an emergency fund
• Trust each other
In following discussion, we shall elaborate in each of the tips suggested above.
6. Discuss Your Finances
• Marriage works on honesty, and it starts with disclosing information about
your finances such as any outstanding debt, how you expect to handle money
etc.
• Finalize the financial contributions both must make and which expenses are
to be handled by whom.
• Make sure you are open about your spending patterns. How soon do you buy
monthly grocery? How much do you keep aside for leisure activities?
• Compliment each other’s needs and work out a solution and try to balance of
any economical deficits by controlling the expenditures.
• At the end, always draw a financial plan to curtain unnecessary expenses and
to add more to the savings.
7. Set Monetary Goals
• It is never too late to discuss economical goals early in marriage. Do not wait
until few months, but set baseline for financial status and jot down those
financial goals in dept.
• If you plan to start a new investment, take a loan, expand your savings or
business- be it whatever monetary activity, make it an event where both can
participate.
• In case your partner disagrees, try to hit a compromise or bring in a practice
of no meddling in each other’s financial decisions. Just promise to maintain
transparency.
• You can work as combined forces! For example- your partner takes care of
household expenses and pays off debts whereas you manage the payments
for extracurricular activities and build up savings.
8. Managing Bank Accounts
• It is common for newly-married couples to open a join bank account.
Combining accounts does simplify finances and help develop trust in
marriage. Moreover, each one of you can add or withdraw money
from a larger base of sum.
• But if you and your partner prefer a level of independence, then you
can maintain individual bank accounts.
• Probably you can pool in money dedicated for common expenses in a
joint bank account and the rest can be taken over to sole bank
accounts.
• Whichever decision you take must be done so with common consent
to avoid strife and displeasure at the very start of marriage.
9. Chalk Out a Budget
• Coming to a very important pointer- budget. We all have our own
requirements and spending, and after marriage the responsibilities of
finances increase
• It gets very essential to draw a limit for the expenditures for various things
such as food, house rent, clothing, home renovation, entertainment etc.
• Start reviewing the expenses you both make or keep a note of the same over
a few weeks so as to determine how much you need for different expenses.
• Do not forget to save for taxes. Not paying taxes can hamper you and your
spouse in many ways.
• Allocate funds or irregular and unexpected expenses or spending that cannot
be avoided such as regular medical checkups, payment of EMIs, insurance
premiums etc.
• It is possible that at the beginning you may exceed the budget, so we
recommend you to be careful with the spending.
10. Get-together to Say “Money”
• Now that you have better understanding about spending, know where you
require that extra buck, and understand the need for sketching a budget,
how do you bring all these into action?
• It is simple, hold weekly or monthly meetings about the spending done
and brainstorm ways on managing the same.
• You do not have to make it a formal meeting. Probably, just sit back and
relax over after cozy dinner and give two odd hours to talk about what you
and he/she spent on through the week.
• Make it a casual yet firm meeting. If any of you notice your spouse has
overstepped the line, let him/her know in a loving manner that they must
be more cautious.
• Do not take any disagreements to bed. If there is a money matter that
cannot be avoided to be discussed, take time to sort it out than mull over
it the whole night.
11. Take the Right Amount of Risk
• As just married couples, you both may have lavish dreams, desires that ask
for quite good amount of monetary support. While it is vital to keep a
check on spending, it does not hurt to splurge sometimes.
• However, plan for whatever expenditures you make such as honeymoon,
vacations, interior décor of your home, buying new stuff for house and
each other, hangouts etc.
• Like we said, be wise with your money or it does not take a long time to
burn a hole in pocket. Never let expenses to mount to a level that you
have to take a debt unnecessarily.
• If you both maintain credit cards, be attentive to how often you use these.
• Sometimes you may want to invest at places that offer faster returns, and
as married couples who are just looking at ways to ease their finances,
tricky offers may seem enticing.
• Verify any investment schemes, spending, promises by merchandisers etc,
before you trust them with your pennies.
12. Trust Each Other
• Trusting each other not only through nitty-gritty situations, but also on
finances will bring peace and love between spouses. If you can rely on your
spouse that he/she will not make pointless expenses, then half of your
economical worries are solved.
• We understand building trust takes time even though you have known each
other since before the marriage. What we recommend is, start working your
finances as a team. Observe where both of you have to spend and where you
can restrict spending.
• Appreciate each other on contributions made in every way. Surprise your
spouse with small gifts, it can be something as simple as card with few lovely
words.
• All these may seem way different in financial management subject, but do
trust us when we say that relying on each other takes more than just sitting
together talking about money.
• Be open to listening out to opinions, something these can help you make
important financial decisions.
13. Create an Emergency Fund
• If you do not have an emergency fund already, do make one instantly.
Here, you both must set aside certain amount of money to handle any
untoward expenses, such as in case any of you lose their job, urgent
repairs, natural diseases, illnesses and similar circumstances.
• Do add on to the emergency fund constantly and build it over time. These
act as savings that you should disturb only when unavoidable crisis or
situation arises, and you have no other option but to look this way.
• At the same time, be careful to not unnecessarily empty out emergency
funds. For example, if you have a huge expense, but do not have cash to
manage it for the moment, you can take a loan instead of spending from
the emergency fund.
• Also if you choose to take finance, be sure to regularly pay off the
installments to escape from additional economical burden.
14. Remember, Sharing is Caring and You Have
Many Adventures to Explore!
Peace-Love-Happy Beginning
