Finances and Family

There is a topic that is starting to become more and more controversial in family dynamics, and that is the discussion of finances. Whether you are married or not, if you are living with your partner, a very big discussion that needs to happen is how to take care of things like debt. Now hopefully you won't have to experience much debt in your life, but if you have an accident and you end up having to pay for things like medicare and a hospital stay, it can easily get pricy. Things like this can put a lot of strain on a relationship, and it makes sense when couples fight about it. Assuming we are talking about everyday finances, if you are in a committed relationship and you are living with the person, it's wise to have joint finances. Things like bank accounts and credit cards would be a good thing to work out together rather than having separate savings and spending. There are many benefits to this, one of the most notable ones is that it just makes life easier, especially if there is an emergency. 

I've had to have a lot of discussions with my boyfriend about finances, even though we aren't living married or living together. We do still plan on getting married in the future. The biggest thing that we have had to talk about is my student debt. He has been very generous and has offered to help me pay it off, but I insisted on paying it all off on my own. A while ago I got myself into a deep hole financially, I made some stupid decisions academically and I ended up with bad grades. I had an agreement with my parents that they would only pay for my schooling if I passed my classes, and being the dumb freshman I was, I slacked off and didn't think much of it. So I ended up getting a loan and I started making improvements in school, and now I have the privilege of having my parents pay for my schooling again. It took some hard work, but I was able to save up enough money to pay off my loan completely before I earned any interest on it, and to this day that is my proudest accomplishment. I had to do a lot of budgeting, saving, and studying in order to accomplish my goal though. Now that it is completely paid off, I don't have to worry about bringing serious debt to my future marriage. For a while, I was concerned that if I got married, then I would be dragging him down with me to pay off my loans. That's the main reason why I was so concerned with paying it off as fast as I could. Since then we have had other discussions about money. For example, my boyfriend is currently looking to pay for driving lessons because he is an international student. I've advised him that he should probably wait till he has enough money to cover things like gas and car maintenance, which are insanely expensive nowadays. 

Financial freedom is very important in a family, and if you plan to get married at some point, it's wise to settle any debts beforehand. I don't think it is fair to bring large amounts of debt to the table unless your partner is aware of it and is willing to help you pay for it. Expenses can quickly add up, especially with kids. If it'd possible, it's wise to do things like plasma donation where you can make a small amount of money every so often. Every little penny counts.