Mo Money, Mo Problems.

You hear all the time that money is the most common topic of marital arguments. I think that Husband and I have done a great job of managing our finances in a way that allows us to avoid arguing about money most of the time. That's not to say, however, that money isn't a problem for us. And when I say that money is a problem for us, I mean that it's a problem for me, and therefore for Husband as well. That's part off what marriage is, sharing our problems.

You see I'm not great with money. I find that I'm either struggling with money, or I don't think I'm struggling and later I find out that I actually was struggling, but I didn't find out until it's too late. At that point, my frustrated Husband has to bail me out. This has happened more often than I'd like to admit. And I'm not so foolish as to think that that doesn't put a strain on our relationship.

So, Husband and I had a little discussion about how I can better manage my money, and he'll help me out a little bit. What we'll do is a little financial housekeeping that we should have done a long time ago. We'll combine our car insurance into one policy so that it will cost us less and will get paid for out of our joint funds, rather than each of us paying our own. We'll also use joint funds to pay for our cell phones.

Here's the hard part: Husband wants me to build a safety buffer in my personal account like he has in his. This has been a goal of mine forever, but I've never been able to manage it. And I know he'll be hounding me about it.

Don't spend it all in one place!

Last night, the in-laws invited us to dinner so that they could present us with our wedding gift. It was a fairly large sum of money, and they told us to do with it what we wish.

So now there's a decision to be made. How will Husband and I collaboratively use this money?

I can think of a zillion things to spend it on for myself. I could get those perfect Louboutin pumps I've been dreaming of, or buy a season's opera tickets, or buy one opera ticket and a fabulous dress to go with it.

I expect that Husband's is imagining a new souped-up computer.

If we're going to do something to benefit both of us, its a bit more of a challenge. Traditionally, we should get something for our home, like a new piece of furniture. We have an ugly shelf in the living room that our TV sits on. We could afford to replace it with a nicer one from IKEA, and maybe even have enough left over for a flat-screen TV.

Then there are our financial goals that need to be attended to. We could dump the cash in a savings account and add to it until we have enough to make a down-payment for a house. We could also invest it.

We had so much fun on our honeymoon, that I'd love to save it for our next vacation too. Husband wants to go to Alaska, and although it wouldn't be my first choice for a destination, I know it would be beautiful.

What if we just cheated and split the dough, 50/50?