As part of our month-long series about Women, Work & Money, we’ve brought on internationally acclaimed personal finance expert Suze Orman to answer some of our questions about money. This first question came from Kveller blogger and actress, Mayim Bialik.
Mayim asks:
“I was raised in a very old-fashioned home. My dad was in charge of the money, and he gave my mom a weekly amount of cash. As an adult, I’m struggling because my husband is great with money and finances but I’m also an earner and I want to be part of my financial life and future. It’s so easy for me to tune out and let him take over…
How do you suggest we divide financial responsibilities so that we both are involved but aren’t constantly having to make every single financial decision and do every task together?”
Suze Orman responds:
Your question makes me think that for you, dealing with money is a chore. Dealing with your money is something that you do not enjoy on any level and that is what has to change!
When you’re in a relationship, M just doesn’t stand for marriage, it also stands for money–and if you want your relationship to always be good then you need to make decisions jointly when it comes to money.
You need to pay bills together–it’s not about dividing the tasks like chores, such as taking out the garbage, washing the dishes–money is the key to your financial happiness so you have to want to do these things together. The main reason you need to do these things together is every single one of these things is important and if something were to happen to one of you and now that person can’t physically do these things anymore–that is not the time to learn what needs to be done. The key here is YOU have to want to do these things for you to understand that these things are the key to your happiness, your security, your ability to sleep at night. Change your attitude as to how you see and deal with money so that one day you won’t find yourself in a situation where your money blows up and there’s a big bang–get it?
Check out Suze Orman’s Approved Card, which was named “Best Card for Teenagers” by Card Hub.
This series was brought to you by a generous grant from the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York. JWFNY encourages women to make change. Learn more at JWFNY.org.
