How I Met My Relationship Goal, And Planned A Financial Future With My Wife

I am supposedly a smart guy who holds an important profile at a multinational company. At work, we discuss investment options a lot, and I make the best use of my knowledge. Be it stocks or mutual funds or even PPF or a debt investment, I know it all.

However, I didn’t share that knowledge with the most important person. My wife. Though I love her a lot I never bothered to discuss investments with her. Maybe, I was an informed-yet-egoist man who lived believing the myth that I knew it all.

Things changed one evening when my wife and I were sipping tea and chatting. She suddenly said: “have you consulted a good financial planner to help us know how much will we actually need after years for the various goals and ambitions we have towards us and the children?” Silence followed, and that day I realized how silence ‘felt’.

What happened to my wife?

I thought her interest, and knowledge was always limited to her work, home and movies. Not that I ever thought she was not intelligent, but this question seemed to raise a bigger question about my investment habits so far. I use to make random investments and my only motive was to earn more and save more,  without realizing the future needs of that investment.

We men often live in a fictitious notion that we know everything, and do not discuss money matters with our spouses. However, it is important to share our thoughts, and views on various financial goals, and expenses with her. Here’s what you can do:

• Ask your spouse her/his views on various goals and ambitions.their

• Consult a qualified financial planner in the presence of your spouse.

• Give your spouse financial peace by letting them know about the assets you own, that have secured the family’s future.

• Update them about everything that you have budgeted for, till date.

• Seek their opinion on the financial budget of the family.

• Make your spouse aware of the different asset classes, especially the power of compounding.

• Talk about using the matured amount of any financial asset optimally.

A woman are no less than the finance minister of her home,  she manages the revenue expenditure better than the many finance professionals. Then why not to seek her opinion on the the dreams to be fulfilled for the family?

This is a guest blog by Sushant Kumar. He is a financial expert and the co-founder of FinPeace Technologies Pvt Ltd. Do you have a question for him? Add it to the comments below and we will get you the expert’s answer. The views expressed are the writer’s own.