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Blog: If Your Money Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy
 Finances...Buddy Up and Giddy Up Together
Having two pairs of eyes on finances can help keep your money in check and take some stress off of money decisions. My husband and I have been married for almost eleven years. I have a background in accounting and enjoy the number crunching process. After we were married I took on the primary role of keeping track of the money and budget. Fast forward ten years and I still am. There are times when I would have enjoyed him being a substitute driver for a short time to give me a little break from the twice a month financial planning. Recently we talked about it even more and I let him know I don't mind doing the "driving" on a regular basis, but I would like him to sit in the "front seat" of our financial vehicle and learn how to drive and take some test runs after a while so if I need a break I can get one and it won't be stressful on either of us. He has always been there to help me make financial decisions but not the day to day operations of finances. Let's face it, whether you are the husband or wife and take care of the finances it is an added pressure and takes a good amount of time and planning if you really care about how your money is spent. If you are the spouse that does not take care of the finances then realize that a back seat approach is not the right answer. It is important whether you are married or single that someone besides yourself, if single employ the help of a trusted individual, oversee your finances with you so your finances can be analyzed further to see if there is anything you may be overlooking but more importantly a trusted backup in case anything were to happen and you were not able to oversee them temporarily.
I can't emphasize enough that teaching someone how you do business with your finances is a process. You literally have to teach them how to "drive" the way you do and show them the direction you are going with your money. I really enjoy using Quicken for our personal finances. It is a wonderful vehicle to use and saves me tons of time and energy managing different accounts and all the bills for two homes, two children, etc. I can plan out my cash by "splitting" the amount in the register transaction into groceries, gas, clothing, household, and etcetera and manipulate it before I take the cash out if an unexpected bill comes in. I don't have to have the mess of erasing it and rewriting it in a traditional check register. I can also look at our spending habits in a month's time and any time in the last year or years. Using Quicken is very easy for me but will take some time for me to teach my husband how it all works and goes together. Remember it's like driving and he will make some mistakes when he gets "behind the wheel" but I will be in the passenger seat right next to him helping him learn instead of doing damage by trying to go it alone.
We are also going to have financial meetings so he is up to date on where our money is going for the next two weeks and what is paid during that time of the month. Even though our bills in Quicken are set up to show on the first or fifteenth to be paid, it will give much more merit by explaining why it is set up like this. This will ensure that when he becomes a full fledged substitute driver he will know the what, where, when, how much, and why's of our finances and be more confident in his abilities and not to mention me being more confident in his "driving" abilities. Our first financial meeting will be tonight. I think it will be great and a great learning experience for both of us. Just because we've been married for ten years does not mean we have every facet of our life and marriage figured out…even if I am a professional organizer. Everything and I mean everything needs to be a process and development of the process. Enjoy the process and enjoying not having to be alone with some of the major stresses of life…like finances.
posted on: 2/13/2008 11:30:00 AM by Triste Horrell
category: Finances
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If Your Money Ain't Happy, Ain't Nobody Happy
by Triste Horrell
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About Triste:
Being an organizing expert makes one want to be a "showroom" in all areas of life. However reality can hit hard when you're a mother of small children and a military wife and own an organzing business. Of course Triste would like to have a picture perfect Better Home and an even Better Garden. Throw a Pottery Barn in the backyard for exceptional creative time to become the wiz-woman for all the ideas and inventions that the world could not live without. But Triste has settled on the fact of telling herself "I can be perfect in my mind and no one can mess up my space there!" In reality Triste is very self-motivated and has true business accomplishments like having SYSTEMIZE since 1997, the first home and business organizing firm in the state of South Carolina. She has been repeatedly recognized in her Greenville, SC area for her organizing expertise and makeovers on local NBC and FOX news, Greenville News, local magazines such as Greenville Magazine and Upstate Parent and NPR radio. She has turned people's lives around by focusing on what she calls the "four building blocks of being organized" consisting of space, time, financial and personal. This is even represented in her business logo. "That's what I'm in business for, turning people's lives around!" Also applying her popular 3 Steps to Systemize have not only organized her clients but KEPT them organized for years.
Triste's Website:
www.systemize4u.com
Downtime Activities
- Reading Magazines
- Spending time at our cottage
- Keeping our Westie pretty
- Putting tealights around after the kids are in bed
- Adventures with my awesome hubby
- Making microwave smores...just for me
1 graham cracker, broken in half 1 small piece of chocolate 1 big marshmellow On one side of cracker put piece of chocolate and marshmellow on top. Place in microwave and heat for approx. 17 seconds (while cooking replace marshmellow on top of chocolate if needed). Put other half of cracker on top, eat and enjoy and watch out for oozing chocolate!
My Organizing Tool-Box
- Time - Outlook
This is a great way to keep papers off the desk and track where you need to go, task list, jot down quick notes on the virtual "post-its, keep up with contacts in the virtual Rolodex
- Personal Finances - Quicken
This simple yet practical program keeps your bank accounts in tact...did I mention simple?!
- Business Finances - QuickBooks
I have used this program for years and have set many clients up on it. It is a must for keeping track of business transactions and keeping tax time easy...push a few buttons and out come the reports, your done and your tax preparer loves you.
- Space - turntables
I love these things! You can put them in cabinets, the fridge, garage, and closets. They are inexpensive, easy to find and available at any discount store and you can even find fancier ones. If you are not sure what they are, they are the white (or other fancier kinds) and spin around like a lazy susan, you can have a single or double-tier one for spices.
- Personal - Magazines and Internet
I love to look at magazines and the internet for good articles on personal development, pictures for decorating inspiration and fun projects to do with my family. I keep my magazine subscriptions to a minimum (3) so I can read them and enjoy each one. I look for things on some of my favorite websites for whatever fancies me at that time.
- Online Recipe Boxes
Use these on some of your favorite websites, bring the laptop into the kitchen while the recipe is up and you never have to have the paper clutter. One of my and my husbands favorites is Williams-Sonoma.
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www.OnlineOrganizing.com is a service mark of Bradford, LLC.
