Financial issues are one of the leading topics couples argue about and a top source of stress for military couples. Bills can add up quickly between paying for monthly costs, travel, and unexpected expenses—which means stress can add up too. To help keep your relationship on track despite financial pressures, explore your attitudes, beliefs, goals, and expectations about money with your partner.
Money, marriage, and the military
Between PCSing, changes in your partner’s employment, and changes in pay during deployments or other special duties, military families often face more financial strain than their civilian counterparts. Financial stress is often linked to relationship conflict and dissatisfaction. Arguments about money tend to be more negative and get more heated than arguments over most other topics.
Money often holds deeper meaning than just numbers in a budget. For many, it symbolizes emotional needs around security, freedom, and even acceptance. Money can also be a measure of equality, success, and control.
To learn more about the meanings you and your partner place on money, ask yourself what role you expect (and want) your finances to play in your life and relationships. One way to start the conversation is to explore what you and your partner have learned about finances from each of your families.
Map your “financial genetics”
Your views around money might not be as hardwired as your genetic makeup, but they’re probably closer than you think. A major factor that guides how adults communicate about, respond to, make meaning of, and manage money is how their parents did it. One way to really explore what you and your partner learned growing up is to map out your family’s history and stories around money.
Start by thinking about your generation and the generations of your parents and grandparents. Write down your observations on a family tree to really visualize the topic. By creating a family financial map, you and your partner can more clearly see the patterns in each other’s families. Try some of these questions to guide your exploration:
Financial management
- How did your parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and other significant adults handle money? Who was in charge of managing the finances?
- What was your sense of money growing up? Did you grow up well-off, without much money, or somewhere in between? What about your parents and grandparents?
- What were spending habits like when you were growing up? Were adults in your family frugal, or did they spend freely?
Communication
- Did your family members discuss finances openly, in private, or not at all? What types of financial topics were discussed and what topics were not?
- Were financial decisions across the generations of your family made jointly, or did certain individuals take them on?
- Were there conflicts around spending or financial decisions?
- What “rules” did you learn about money? Did your family discuss strategies around financial management? What were they?
Contextual factors
- Did any historic events play a significant role in your family’s financial history, such as the Depression or another economic recession, war, moving to a new country, etc.?
- Are there any cultural factors that affect the financial views of your family?
- What did your parents, grandparents, and other adults in your family do for a living? Who was employed, doing what jobs, and in what types of career fields?
- Did your parents or grandparents experience financial problems? What were they and how were they addressed?
Reap the rewards of your research
Compare your financial attitudes, beliefs, goals, and expectations with those held by your partner. No matter where you are in your relationship, communicating clearly about your financial histories and doing some healthy problem solving will get you closer to building your financial future.
Adam and Lisa: A financial history comparison
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Bottom Line
When you and your partner better understand your underlying beliefs and expectations around money, you can plan for the future. And hopefully, you can avoid some of the financial stress that can come with military life and find “health, wealth, and happiness.”