Financial Goals Married Couples Must Make

… in their lifetime

Whether you are already married or plan to get married, here are financial goals married couples must make in their lifetime!

In order to create the most profitable budget for this year, you must review your financial goals over your lifetime. Then, we can determine which of those goals we can accomplish this year. We covered how to maximize your income in a previous post. If you haven’t downloaded your free budget template yet, you can do so here now and create a budget for this entire year! Grab it now, so we can continue filling out the first part of the template and continue listing out all your goals. We also cover personal financial goals you must make for yourself in your lifetime in my previous post here and for your children here.

Your Most Important Investment

We covered A LOT of important stuff regarding setting personal financial goals in my previous post. The goals we covered in that post go hand-in-hand with the financial goals married couples must make (present or future) which we cover here. So, if you haven’t already, I highly suggest that you review my previous post before reading further.

Your Relationship

One very important thing we covered in my previous post is investing in your physical and mental health. We each must be doing well as individuals to be able to better serve each other as a couple. And, to better serve each other as a couple, you must prioritize keeping your relationship healthy. So, before setting the typical financial goals together regarding big purchases and life milestones, let’s set the most important and first of the financial goals married couples must make together which is to invest in your relationship!

To put this into actionable steps, grab your budget template, and list together, as a couple, what you believe you need to do in order to create or keep a healthy relationship with your spouse. Here are some examples of what you can invest in for the health of your relationship:

• counseling
• scheduled date nights
• scheduled vacations for anniversaries
• fun classes together
• hobbies you can do as a couple

Decide together, now, which goal you are going to do first and do whatever you need to do to get started on that goal. For example, you can sign up for virtual counseling now or schedule an at-home date night after the kids go to bed.

We will eventually insert these financial goals married couples must make into your budget. So, be thorough with your list and we will see how to fit all these goals into your budget. Investing in your relationship doesn’t have to be expensive! You can invest in your relationship in creative ways that don’t involve spending money. Let’s always remember that, in all the working and the getting of all the things, we need to be mindful of when those “things” begin to take priority over our relationship. So, when things become strained in your relationship, remember to go back to what’s most important and take some time out for each other, even if it costs a little money.

Your Personal Goals

Now that you went over your goals as individuals as outlined here and have prioritized goals for your relationship as stated in the previous section above, it’s time to review your personal goals together.

For Those Who Are Single

If you want to get married in the future, I pray, sister or brother, that you are not holding off on accomplishing your personal financial goals until you find “the one.” The time for “the one” to come into your life isn’t guaranteed, but it is guaranteed that the time will pass. Let’s maximize our time and become strong financially as individuals. Then, you will be stronger together, financially, as a couple.

This brings me to another point … before you determine if he or she is “the one,” being aware of where they stand financially says a lot about them. How we take care of our money reflects a lot about our character. If we aren’t faithful with little, we won’t be faithful with much. If the way someone handles their money doesn’t feel right to you, it’s a big, giant, red flag waving in your face.

To put these thoughts into actionable steps, grab your budget template, and list out what you want for your future spouse. Here are some examples of some goals you may have before deciding on your future spouse:

• he or she is responsible, financially (not just by saying they are but are so in actions)
• he or she is supportive of your personal financial goals (not just saying they are but encouraging you and keeping you accountable)
• he or she has a good, stable job
• he or she is actively pursuing their passion(s)
• he or she is debt-free
• he or she is making a concerted effort to be debt-free
• he or she has strong financial goals (more importantly, they are actively pursuing those goals and not just stating them)

Getting married and sharing your finances with someone else is a BIG DEAL. So, looking out for those red flags is SO IMPORTANT. You have got to make sure your potential spouse isn’t all talk and saying all the right things. You have got to make sure you actually see those words put into action. He or she has to walk the talk before getting with you! You completing this budget challenge indicates that you are trying to be the best person you can be. You deserve the best person for YOU!

When the day comes that you are engaged, you can add to your goals tab when you will have your wedding. We will calculate together how to budget for and fit the cost of a wedding into your budget! (I have helped coordinate weddings and events in the past and LOVE creating beautiful events on a budget … it’s possible, friends!)

For Those Who Are Married

Let’s review each other’s personal goal lists together with open minds and open hearts. Remember, I had you list out your personal financial goals first before looking at your debt. This may seem like backward financial advice, but the reason why we want to look at our goals first is because it can be easy to forget why we are paying off our debt or saving our money. So, let’s remember that we will prioritize paying off that debt and that debt-free day will come. For now, dream big together, without limits, so you can clarify together your reasons for why you are working so hard to reach financial freedom. That way, you can get in a healthy mindset about your finances now and keep each other motivated if you ever feel like you are going to burn out.

Now, grab your lists and light that fire in each other! You two are a team meant to root each other on. So, today, you will do the following:

1. Read your lists together, next to each other, and talk about them. Don’t hide any of your goals from each other. Remember, you are a team meant to support each others’ goals.
2. After you talk about your goals, you will then ask each other if there are any tangible things you can do today to help your spouse reach their goals.
3. Give each other copies of your personal goal lists.

To put the things you talked about into actionable steps, grab your budget template, and list on the goals tab everything you can do to support your spouse’s personal financial goals as you talk about them. Here are some examples of some tasks you can do to help support your spouse’s goals:

• you can schedule time to take the kids to the park while your spouse goes for a run
• do a practice meeting together to encourage your spouse to ask his/her boss for a well-deserved raise
• you can help research any parts of starting a business that your spouse may not be as savvy at doing (i.e. you can research how to create a website)

Taking these small steps, today, will bring you one day closer to helping each other accomplish your financial goals. One year from now, you will be glad you took this small step today and another small step tomorrow, etc. to bring you closer to your financial goals.

Don’t Let Life Pass You By Without Doing These Things

In my previous post about setting personal financial goals, we talked about figuring out what you really want and turning your passions into income. While you may have your own personal financial goals, separately from your spouse, regarding these two topics, you may also have shared goals, with your spouse, regarding these two topics as well. Also, if you had a hard time with these tasks yesterday, you spouse can help provide helpful insight! Together, here are more financial goals married couples must make and prioritize together.

Figure Out What You Really Want

The beauty of having a spouse to support you is that they can provide insight that you may not realize about yourself. If you are single, ask your bestfriend or another close loved one to do this exercise with you. If you haven’t been able to figure what you really want to do regarding bringing in an income, you can help each other figure that out. Ask each other these questions:

1. If you could start all over, what job or career would they really want to have right now?
2. If money or time weren’t a concern, what kind of classes or training would you want to be taking right now?

Discuss these topics together, and then separately and go over yesterday’s tasks again on your own. I want to clarify that I know not everyone has to work a typical nine-to-five job. If you or your spouse wants to stay home and/or focus on the next topic below, that’s great! Today, you can also discuss ways to support one of you staying home. We will also talk about this in another section further below.

Turn Your Passion into Income

If you or your spouse never thought about creating an income from a passion or hobby and so yesterday’s tasks were difficult, today, you can help each other figure out what those passions or hobbies might be. Here are some things you can do right now:

1. Tell your spouse what unique talents you notice they have.
2. Tell them what you notice they get excited about (i.e. baking, decorating, cars, fashion, etc.)
3. Tell them your favorite qualities about them (i.e. their kindness, their desire to help others, what a great parent they are, etc.)

Take these insights and separate from each other and go over yesterday’s tasks again on your own. The amazing thing about social media is that you can simply start but posting an encouraging quote that helped you or that you created to help others who struggle with parenting, for example. As you share consistently and build your following, you can create printable resources and/or receive sponsorships and your passion or hobby can become a source of income!

In all the searching for personal, individual passions and hobbies, you might find that you share passions and hobbies that you can work on together! And they don’t even have to be the same hobby. For example, maybe one of you is an excellent writer while the other is an excellent artist. You can easily combine your talents to create beautifully illustrated children’s books! Another example is if one of you is into fashion and the other is into photography, you just made another great combo to become fashion and photography bloggers!

By now, you know the drill, grab your budget template and list out on the goals tab all these goals you can work on together. Do one task today to work toward that goal.

Financial Goals that Should Be Standard

Say No to Debt

I want to reiterate again today what I shared in yesterday’s post, if you have found me before getting into debt, hooray! Congratulations to you because you are the rare few who realizes that DEBT SHOULDN’T BE NORMAL! This is one of the most important financial goals married couples must make … to begin debt free and to stay debt free.

If you have found me after getting into debt, hooray! Congratulations to you because I show you how to pay off your debt the quickest way possible with the least amount of finance charges here. BUT, don’t do these calculations yet. We are focusing on listing financial goals for your marriage today and will go over debt payoff later during our budget challenge.

Remember, our goal is to pay as much as we can in cash and avoid paying finance charges whenever possible. So, today, depending on whether or not you have debt, grab your budget template, and you can list any of the following goals pertaining to you:

• remain debt free
• pay off debt as quickly as possible
• do not add to debt

And, again, NO, you should NEVER have credit card debt! By the end of this month, with your new budget created, you will never add to your credit card debt again.

So, now, let’s focus on how to plan to pay for major purchases in cash.

Pay for Major Purchases in Cash

Today, we are focusing on making and listing out our financial goals. Later in this budget challenge, we will go into detail about the how. Remember, as I stated in this video below, it is important to list our lifetime financial goals so we can focus on accomplishing what we can this year.

In yesterday’s post, regarding paying for major purchases in cash, we went over what realistically makes sense regarding the timing of making major purchases including vehicles, houses, and other large purchases. So, you will want to review the timing of replacing vehicles there and then continue with setting these big-purchase financial goals married couples must plan to make.

Purchasing Vehicles

So, today, grab your budget template, and do the following:

• review together when you need to purchase any vehicles for the first time and when you estimate you will need to replace them again
• note who will need a new vehicles and when (i.e. you, your spouse, each child)
• note these dates on the goals tab of your budget template

When we set up your budget by the end of this month, we will note how much to save each month for your next vehicles. That way, you won’t have to take a out a loan when you need a new car and waste money on finance charges!

If you already have an auto loan, we will go over how to pay it off more quickly or how to decide how much car you can afford here.

Purchasing a Home

In yesterday’s post, we went over when you ideally want to purchase your new home and upgrade and downgrade your new home. So, today, grab your budget template, and list dates you may expect the following milestones to occur if they are goals for you:

• when you would like to own your first home
• where you would like to live before having kids
• when you plan to have kids and where you would like to live (i.e. near family or near good school districts)
• how many kids you plan to have
• when your kids will become adults (note if you expect them to move out right away or live with you during college)
• where you would like to live when you retire
• what kind of home you would like to live in when you retire (I suggest a single-story home as the risk of injury due to falls is much more serious in later years)

These decisions are all a standard part of life but we can easily forget to plan financially for these milestones which all affect where we live and what kind of house we live in. It can be easy to just decide to get a loan whenever a major milestone happens. However, this can cause a lot of unnecessary financial stress due to poor planning. For example, you can end up with an adjustable loan that is great this year but seriously sets you back financially next year as the interest rate goes wacko on you. So, listing these home purchasing milestones now will help set you up for success in the future as you are more mindful to plan for these changes ahead of time.

We go over in detail how to pay off your mortgage more quickly if you do take out a loan OR how to decide how much home you can purchase here. Also, when we set up your budget by the end of this month, we will note how much to save each month for your first or next home. That way, you won’t have to take a out a loan whenever you need to transition to a new home and waste money on finance charges!

Other Big Purchases

You should have already listed your personal financial goals for other big purchases, besides homes and vehicles, during yesterday’s tasks. Today, you will grab your budget template, and list any big purchase goals you share. Again, we will eventually calculate these into your budget.

Being Financially Prepared for Family Milestones

We covered different milestones for big purchases, including vehicles and homes for you and your children, in the previous section. We go over more financial goals specific to your children in the next post. Whether you have kids already or plan to have them in the future, there are important financial goals married couples must make for their children in their lifetime to give them the best opportunities (and single parents too!)

We go over other financial goals like savings and investments goals you must have during this budget challenge. For now, list out ALL the financial goals for your marriage which you have noted throughout this entire blog. Then, we will figure out how to fit them into your budget by the end of this challenge.

Dreaming big now, even when things may be tight, sets you up for success in the future:

• One, you are in the mindset that you are working toward these goals and are, therefore, mindful about how your financial decisions today bring you closer to these goals.
• Two, you are aware of habits that have kept your finances stagnant, or even moving backward.
• Three, you are equipped to prevent debt from increasing.
• Four, you are equipped to increase your finances by cutting back on expenses and finding alternative income sources!

In order to truly know how to maximize your income and accomplish your financial goals, you must create a budget for your income now in order to use it in the most profitable way possible. So, if you haven’t downloaded your free budget template yet, you can do so here now and create a budget for this entire year!

Remember, after you create your budget, I show you how it all comes together in a comprehensive lifetime budget that takes minutes a day to maintain.

In the next post, we cover financial goals you must make for your children in their lifetimes. Stay tuned!

Happy Budgeting!