Are you engaged or married? See if you can both answer these three questions: If the chance of getting a disease is 10 percent, how many people out of 1,000 would be expected to get the disease? If five people all have the winning numbers in the lottery and the prize is $2 million, how […]
Archive | Money & Marriage
Are You Committing Financial Infidelity?
I’m sure you know that money is a frequent topic of dispute between husbands and wives. And new research shows that the issue is not exactly going away. The Star Tribune reported on an American Express survey in which 50 percent of married people acknowledged making a purchase their spouse was against, and 30 percent […]
Money and Marriage: Living With Financial Freedom
For many couples, money is a tough topic. That’s why, for the past couple of months, I’ve been using the first post of the month to focus on ideas for making money work in marriage. It’s also why I created a financial workshop to help engaged and newly married couples get their relationship started in […]
The Money/Happiness Connection Revisited
It’s a timeless question: does more money translate into more happiness? A new study by researchers at the Center for Health and Well-Being at Princeton University shows that happiness does increase with income – to a point. At $75,000 per year, happiness levels off. But the study was actually more nuanced than that. The researchers […]
Is Frugal the New Cool?
In today’s budget-conscious era, frugality is in. But for singles, how does penny-pitching play on the dating scene? As reported in The New York Times, ING Direct recently asked 1,000 people (presumably single people) what words would come to mind if they were fixed up for a date with someone described as frugal? The most […]
Saying, “I Do,” Without The Debt
Call it a benefit of the Great Recession: the average cost of a wedding has dropped 30 percent from a high of $29,000 in 2007 to today’s mere $20,000, according to The Wedding Report. If you or someone you know is headed down the aisle sometime soon, here’s how to save even more. According to […]
Managing Money by the Book: Financial Love and Respect
With 20 years of ministry experience, a PhD in family studies, a Master’s of Divinity degree, and a Master’s degree in communication, Emerson Eggerichs was a knowledgeable, experienced, and effective pastor. But one day, while rereading a passage of scripture he had preached on many times, he discovered what he calls “the key to any […]
Spice Up Your Marriage With a… Budget!
Okay, a budget may not exactly add romance to your marriage, but it may help reduce marital money fights. A new national survey I commissioned from the market research firm Synovate found that married people who use a budget experience fewer financial disagreements with their spouse than those who don’t use a budget (see the […]
Do You Work Too Much?
Marriages involving a workaholic are twice as likely to end in divorce, according to a study done by Bryan Robinson, a University of North Carolina researcher and author of Chained to the Desk. In an ABCNews.com story, Robinson makes a distinction between workaholics and hard workers. While workaholics, of course, work more hours than others, […]
A Lesson from Tiger’s Tale
What Went Wrong? I’m not usually much of a celebrity gawker. But I have to admit that I have been completely drawn in to the sad story of Tiger Woods’ “transgressions.” Golf is my favorite sport and I have spent many a Sunday afternoon watching Tiger achieve yet another impressive victory. He is unlike any […]