TAKE TIME TO TALK TOGETHER

When’s the last time you had an honest conversation with your partner about money?

Financial blogger Crystal Paine talks with her husband all the time about everything – especially their finances.

They seem to have made talking about stuff a core activity of their marriage. With that kind of foundation, you can see how money talk would come about naturally.

It’s not as if they haven’t faced the obstacles you and I have. The thing is they have overcome them. Here’s an example:

We’ve set aside the whole “his money, her money” fights and made it all “our money”. We don’t talk about “your earnings vs. my earnings”; it’s all “our earnings”.

That’s a big key. It seems to me that once you transcend the “you vs. me” scenario and start talking about us, then the money talk becomes a lot easier.

Complicated topics

Does this approach work when talking about life insurance?

I can see how that particular topic is a bit more complicated.

After all, in order to have a realistic understanding of life insurance, you have to have a realistic view of life – and death.

Many people are not comfortable talking about that. And so you can see how attempts to talk about this product often do not gain much traction.

What has worked for you?

When you discuss your need for life insurance with your spouse, how do you get on common ground?

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