Money Date – How Money Date Was Born
What is Money Date?
Money Date, to me, has always been a weekly time to check in. During this time, we review and update:
1. Spending
2. Earning
3. Savings
How was Money Date born?
I do these every week, but what is the story behind them?
A few years into my career as a financial planner, my husband, A CPA, was managing our finances. I wanted to take over the job, but it seemed with his training perhaps he should keep doing it. I wanted to be able to share with my clients what was working for us, but I did not know.
We were moving across the country, and Yuri was getting away from being a CPA, so I thought it would be a great time to step in. Yuri gave me our financial spreadsheet, and I was ready to dive in!
Unfortunately, I started to feel like managing our cash flow was getting to be more and more chaotic.
I got frustrated, and it became a tension point in our relationship and started arguments. Knowing that there had to be a better way of doing this that helped us keep our finances (and our sanity!) in check, I took a closer look at the system we were using.
I wanted to make sure all the bills got paid, and that we knew exactly how much was left over for us to spend on non-fixed expenses.
I thought:
What if I figure out our fixed and variable expenses? Could I keep them organized in a way where bills were always covered, and we always knew how much “extra” there was to spend? I decided to open a second account to use for variable expenses. Our first and primary account was used for fixed expenses. We each got a debit card for the variable account and only took money out of that one.
After a while, we got into a flow that was comfortable for both of us, but sometimes Yuri would have questions. I started to talk to him about these accounts on a weekly basis. We would look at how much we had, and then plan for the week. The more we talked about it and made tweaks, the more streamlined our system became. I had an article published in Business Insider about our personal finances, and so Money Date was born!
Money Date came out of Yuri and I wanting to have conversations about how we are doing with our finances, and realizing that other people need to be having those conversations, as well!
Years later, we are still having Money Dates, but it takes much less time to make sure the bills are paid, and that we are on the same page.
I challenge you to think about how you can automate your finances to reduce stress and tension in your relationship!
