(Prosperity - Brian S Glaser)
After searching high and low for a good financial planner and advisor, I found the perfect one on the pillow next to mine. My wife Eileen, a textile designer by day, uses her own quick wits to handle all fiscal matters big and small for our household. Pillow Talk is a close look at marriage, finance and communication.
One of the best parts of couple-dom is the division of labor: Appointing one person do the food shopping, for example, is simply a smarter use of time and resources than having each spouse or partner "bring home the bacon" - no one can eat that much (especially with the high price of food these days). In our family, Eileen is the point person for money matters - because we're non-traditional, open-minded 21st century people like that, and she's way better at math. Eileen became the Decider in all fiscal matters right around the same time that I became the official Kitchen Guru.
But just it's never smart to shop without a list of what you need, it's not a good idea to completely pass off your financial-planning responsibilities. After all, the money belongs to both of you, and you never know when The Decider isn't going to be available to make a crucial decision. There are two important steps we took to make sure I stay financially informed, even though she is doing most of the work:
1. Organzine, Document and Communicate. After deciding Eileen was managing all of our finances, we mapped our money is and how it's invested. If you're curious, here's my recipe for assembling a central document:
- Include the names and account numbers of any place you've got securities - all of your banks, investment houses, brokerage accounts.
- Omit amounts (this is not a static number) and keep passwords in a separate place.
- Make sure that in the event that your Decider is unable to respond to a crucial call (say, due to hangover or a long-awaited trip to the spa), you have a short path to assembling your joint financial picture.
- If you're looking for more, pour yourself a nice glass and check out Prosperity's Survival Kits, especially The Basics and Document Retention, as well as Pillow Talk: Whaddup Doc - my last column on document organiztion.
In the event of illness or tragedy, having simple, easy-to-understand documentation can help the Non-Decider transition into the Decider role if need be.
2) Communicate Some More. Right, it's never this simple, but this is key. We always discuss any big money moves. While I love the fact that Eileen does all of our trading and investing, we agree that she shouldn't be doing it all untethered.
Anytime she's making a significant move - like investing in bonds for the first time, or moving our short-term CDs from our savings bank to ING - we have a quick talk about it. Usually, this talk involves Eileen telling me what she's doing and me nodding a lot. But every now and then I'm able to help out a bit, even if it's to say, "How 'bout trying out this bond thing with $500 instead of $5,000 to start?" This keeps me in the loop on important decisions, even when she's the one doing the investing.
Just like as Eileen doesn't cook over my shoulder while I'm demostrating my mastery of preparing the perfect sole fillet, I don't go through every little detail of her investment strategies. But she knows which of our cabinets has the spices and which has the plates, and I know exactly where our money is invested.
