In This Issue

From The Budget Coach
Featured Tips & Information: Love and Money – 14 Tips
Inspiration For The Month
Your Question Of The Day
Special Offers
Resources
Bookstore
Contact/General & Subscription Management

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Welcome to my "Common Cents Budgeting Tips" Newsletter.

If you are receiving this newsletter for the first time, please note that all previous newsletters are now available on the website for your convenient viewing. Visit www.moneytracker.com/articles.htm

I'm delighted to have the opportunity to share these tips with you. Remember, you are a vital part of this whole exchange and if you ever have questions or some valuable experience or resource you want to share with others, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Many of the new sections that were added to The Budget Kit workbook over the various revisions these last many years, came from insightful readers and clients like you who wanted to help make a difference.

Remember to email me at judycents@moneytracker.com with any tips, resources or comments you would like to share as well as any questions. Working together is how we can all make a difference in our financial lives.

Have a fulfilling and prosperous day!

To Your Success,

Love and Money - 14 Tips

Happy Belated Valentines Day! This seemed like an appropriate month to share some tips and tidbits about relationships and money.

1. Tidbit - I’m sure you are curious to know how your Valentines Day gift spending compares to others, so take a look at some of the average amounts surveyed shoppers were expected to spend this Valentines Day for a gift.
   • $84.20 (up 8 percent from last year) and $183.80 for the 18-24 year-olds, according to the International Mass Research Association.
   • $100.63 according to a survey by August Partners.
   • $135. (up 6 percent from last year) according to Unity Marketing.
   • P.S. 6 percent of shoppers will buy a gift for their pets.

Whether your personal expense was $84 or $135 this year, the point is to be sure you factor in your own Valentines Day gift and dinner expense in your budget. If you are using the Budget Kit Workbook, be sure to go to the “Yearly Budget Worksheet” section and add in this periodic expense on the Holiday Expense line.

2. Get clear on what emotional messages you have about money and are bringing to the relationship. This means reviewing your values, learned spending patterns and past family experiences around money.
   
   
3. Find out the same about your partner. What do you have in common? What is different? What new spending patterns, shared values, future goals do you want to create together as you set up a solid personal financial foundation?
   
   
4. Communicate regularly about your finances. Know how much income, debt, monthly expenses and savings you have.
   
   
5. Listen to each other so you each feel heard. Money fights are seldom about money. Keep asking and listening until you get to the core issue.
   
   
6. If you’re still in the early dating stages, listen and notice important clues for how your partner manages - or fails to manage - and thinks about money. (See the Resources box for some interesting quizzes on Love and Money).
   
   
7. If you both love to spend, but agree it’s now time to rein in the spending, try using the “Designated Nay-Sayer” technique. Each month you trade off being the person responsible for strongly and lovingly discouraging a purchase. When both of you are swooning over a tempting unplanned, unaffordable item, your role is to bring up the previous agreement and expressed desire to save money for your overall goals.
   
   
8. Swap roles as “Family Budget Director” so you each stay in touch with the financial obligations, status and limits of the financial picture while paying bills and making spending decisions.
   
   
9. Set up joint or separate bank accounts or both. For many, the joint account handles all the household and general expenses. This way you really see the big picture of how money flows through your lives. The smaller separate accounts stay private, agreeing there is no need to answer to the other.
   
   
10. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Agree to a policy of discussing bigger ticket purchases before spending. What is that dollar amount?
    
    
11. Accept and understand your differences. According to Georgetown psychotherapist Annette Annechild. "Men would rather spend money on something that can be resold. They feel that if they buy a car, they'll make money on the car. If they buy a house, they'll write off the interest. It makes more sense, because men are more linear. When women spend money on clothes and makeup and hair, men view it as a complete waste, because it's not coming back."
    
    
12. Review each of your credit reports together watching for any identity theft, errors, and other necessary changes.
    
    
13. Store your financial papers and records in a centralized place. Keep all access information, keys, passwords, disks and other essential notes in a place you both can easily locate and remember.
    
    
14. Tidbit – 23 percent of wives earn more than their husbands, according to the US Census Bureau’s 1998 data, compared to 16 percent in 1981.

What’s happening in your own love and money life? I’d love to hear from you, so be sure to email me with your comments, suggestions and ideas.

Thank you so much for being part of my online “family”.

Have a very abundant and fulfilling 2005.

For more information, feel free to contact me at
judy@moneytracker.com

Judy Lawrence's Common Cents Budgeting Tips (c) Copyright 2004,

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February, 2005

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Inspiration For
The Month

"I look at each couple as being an independent corporation. They are just General Motors with a few less zeros."
-- Cicely Carson Maton

"Major projects will nevër be finished if they are nevër
started. The key to getting things done is to get things
started."
-Harold Taylor

Your Question For The Month To Ponder (from The Money Tracker book)