Merging Finances: My Interview with Mint

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As many readers know, I've recommended and used Mint to keep track our net worth on a month basis for a few years.

It's a wonderful and free tool that allows the two of you get all of your accounts organized easily in one spot.

Merging Finances

They recently asked me to do an interview and I was happy to say yes. The topic was something we cover here – merging finances as a couple.

We started off with why couples argue about money and went from there. Here's a snippet:

What are some common reasons couples argue about money?

I think one big factor is that couples don't really understand how their spouse relates to money.

Usually, the labels saver and spender are thrown out, but it's deeper than that.

We pretty much all spend and save – it's just on different things.

Most times it's because of our personal experiences with money growing up and being on our own.

I think when you have an idea of the “why” behind each other's spending, it's easier to tackle what the issue is. But many times, we seem to be stuck on the surface level – what do you want to buy or spend our money on.

It's one thing to say, “Let's get a house and save for retirement” and another to talk about why you have these goals.

Do you eventually want to have your own business? Do you want to have kids? Do one or both of you want to cut back on work so you can stay at home with them?

Another factor is that we don't want to be judged for choices that we have made. We all have some bad money habits to various degrees; it's a part of learning, and for some of us, we're still paying off those debts.

Your Money or Your Life has a great phrase for that – make peace with your past. You two are now a team, and the goal is to help one another succeed and become stronger for it.

Thoughts on Working Together to Merge Finances

I just wanted to give you a snippet, you can read the rest over at Mint!

If you like to see other perspectives on money, there are several wonderful ones up so please check out the series on Mint!