Question: How do I teach my husband to manage money? I pay all the bills, I do all the grocery shopping. My husband thinks it nothing to go out at spend money on a bunch of stuff he wants all at once. I've tried to explain to him already why he can't do that, but he hasn't changed. Not only that, but he keeps pointing the finger at me for spending money foolishly! It's like He can't own up to it. Now he needs new equipment (he's in the military) and we don't have enough to cover everything he needs and all our bills and he doesn't understand why. I don't know how to get through to him. Please help!

Answer: Consider this:\nMake a list separately of what you both want, enjoy, need - pay no attention to order or anything esle. Then get together and compare, here you can eliminate or even add to a single list you agree on. Then place them in order of importance, please no arguing - if it is important to you (or him) then it is - no matter what you (or he) thinks. Now we have a list, next place a time next to them. House - 3 years, vacation - 1 year etc. Then put dollar amounts next to them - house deposit needed $10,000 divide that by 36 (3 years x 12) you now have a monthly value. Once you have done this you will see that you have monthly values for the things you are trying to do. Then add up everything and get a monthly total. You'll either have enough to do it all or not enough to do it all. Then sit down again and work out what you can eliminate or reduce - 'stuff' once every two months is cheaper than 'stuff' every week. House deposit in 4 years instead of three etc - Once you can see what you can achieve, and you are both on board, then it is easy to do. This may take a few talks, so get coffee and cookies and sit in a nice and comfortable room.\n\nAt some point you may want to show him what you do to pay the bills etc. Alternatively you can have a lot of the bills paid automatically (I do not like this) where you give the utility company your credit card (or checking account)# and they deduct it automatically, every month. Pay everything with a credit card and have the bank deduct the payment from your checking account every month. All bills then get paid automatically - you just need to then monitor that there is enough money in your account, AND that the statements you get are accurate.\n\nGood Luck!
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