Ramit Sethi walks through a framework for couples to talk about money without fighting. Start and end with a compliment, review spending on big categories like travel and eating out, create named savings accounts, and plan something to look forward to together.
Here's the simple framework to use. Start with a compliment. I really appreciate that you make me feel safe when we talk about finances. Not you. Fire nerds who open up your spreadsheet and go, look at this cool little vlookup that I did. It's so cool. Do you feel good? Do you finally feel good about money? Then they're like, I don't want to be with this person anymore. Follow up on open items from last month. Hey, I was going to set up the transfer from our joint checking account to our joint savings. That's done. Review your spending. Are we on track? Here are a couple of key discretionary numbers that we are tracking. How how we do it. Focus on the big discretionary numbers. Things like travel, kids activities, groceries, eating out. You're good. Next, look at your named savings accounts. Oh, you don't have those. You do now. After you read my new book, Money for Couples. Learn about it. Talk over anything else in your shared agenda. Hey, we're going to be done paying off our credit card. Once that's done, how should we reallocate that monthly payment? Sign tasks by name. Give yourselves a rich life moment to look forward to. End with a compliment. It feels good knowing that we are a team.
