I have done quite a few posts on managing money jointly….so here is  one more…

Here are some excellent tips…and has emerged out of a lot of experience of consulting, counselling, reading, skimming…etc. So, here we go:

1. Money is surely the root cause of all disputes: having too much, having too less, in what name should it be held……..everything can become a point for stress. So talking about it and deciding is much better than ‘assuming and repenting’.

2. Understand each other well – financially, that is. Your backgrounds are different, you may not know each other, ….so get to know about your comfortable zones. Then decide what number is the cut off – for single person decision making – say Rs. 5,000 for expenses and Rs. 25,000 for investments.

3. Get on to a healthy financial plan – joint financial plan of course. Detailing goals, steps, investment philosophy, etc. it helps.

4. Get on to a healthy financial diet:  what assets will you invest in? PPF, unit linked plans, mutual funds, direct equity, land, gold, – it does not matter what! Joint money, joint plans have to be executed by joint financial diet!

5. If one of you is a planner and the other lives for the moment (God how well you make pairs!), strike a mid position so that you do not end up screaming at each other. Communicating about money is an amazing skill waiting to be developed!

6. Do you realize that almost all decisions in life have a financial implication? Who will pay for the wedding? who will pay for the honeymoon? How many kids you will have? Will you live in a rented home or will you buy a home? -so talking money is unavoidable, so do it pleasently, and do it well in advance!

Go, get married! all the best….

http://stream.wsj.com/story/experts-wealth-management/SS-2-135511/SS-2-273889/?mod=wsj_streaming_experts-wealth-management