Yesterday we talked about the conversation you need to have with yourself about your finances, but often these are intertwined with your partner's financial position so it is vital to involve them in the conversation. Sadly, numerous surveys show that this is often a conversation that couples fail to have.
This lack of a conversation often comes from where one partner "deals with all the finances" and whilst this may be true from an administrative point of view, it will always be the case that both partners have a view about the future, about what is important to them, and about the relative priorities of all of those hopes.
Having this conversation is therefore vital in terms of long term planning. It is clearly also retrospectively even more important in the event of a bereavement of one partner, particularly if that is of the partner who has dealt with all of the financial issues.
There are also many reasons why one partner may feel embarrassed and look to effectively hide their financial position from their partner. This would often be in the form of debts that are effectively being hidden, perhaps through gambling or just simply maintaining the family's lifestyle beyond the income that is being received.
Whist perhaps easier said than done, it is vital that these issues are brought out into the open both from a financial planning but also from a relationship perspective.
