financial problems can rock the peaceful sailing of your relationships rachel fernandes tells you about some important rules you need to followwhats yours is mine and whats mine is yours may have been the mantra couples swore by in the good old days but in todays times where both partners are the keepers of well paying jobs money matters if not sorted out right at the start itself can become the bone of contention between a couple heres a list of important dos and donts that should constitute your financial bible as a coupledont live beyond your means okay so the easy availability of credit cards and personal loans has put money easily at your disposal but before you head out on that merry shopping extravaganza or a weekend out or even decide to holiday at some exotic destination both of you must take time out to check the current position of your finances and see whether you are really in a position to spend or you need to save up for some future plan home childrens education fund car etc of course we are not implying that you dont indulge in any fun activities but it would help if you set yourself a budget for each outing and moreover stick to it or spend less so that you actually end up saving somethingtally your income and your expenses the tragedy of the situation is that while income remains fixed expenses can fluctuate more wildly than even the stock market while you may hardly spend anything one month during another you may end up spending way more than you had intended to yes there are expenses and many of them unavoidable but dont allow that to derail your relationship for starters both partners need to sit down and create an income and expenses statement all you need to do is monitor where your money goes every month make a note of each and everything you spend on even something as inconsequential as a taxi ride take a good hard look at this and were sure youll find a couple of items you may have bought on a whim or a regular expense that you dont really need to spend on make a conscious effort to amend the situation and take the test again after a couple of months to see whether youre on track or notlimit the credit cards unfortunately for many credit cards are like debt devils in disguise yes they are absolutely handy when you need to make that sudden big expense and dont have cash on hand or in your account but if not used judiciously they can take you down a debt vortex faster than a whirlwind before you even sense that something is amiss your best solution is to restrict yourselves to just one credit card and make sure you restrict its use to household expenses or emergencies exclusivelybudget yourselves you both know how much of money comes in at the end of each