Some good news and some bad news in this week's episode: The bad news: We will be pausing production of this podcast until the fall. The good news: You'll just have to tune into the episode to learn why! We'll be back with new episodes in the fall. In the meantime, the best way to keep in touch is on Instagram. We'll see ya soon!

Most of the content and strategies we feature on this podcast involve having productive money conversations with your partner. But what do you do if money is a topic that your partner won't talk about? In this episode, we do a deep dive into the reasons that these communication blocks around money might be occurring, and give you some strategies to consider using to move your relationship forward. 

Somehow, we've made it 66 full episodes of this podcast without talking about retirement planning. So - we're going to fix that with this week's episode. In this episode, we discuss: How to constructively think about retirement planning in the first half of your career How much you should be saving for retirement How to approach retirement savings as a couple What to do if you feel behind on your retirement savings

Back in Episode 56, we walked through a quick and efficient process to monitor your financial progress on a month-by-month basis. This Monthly Money Meeting works great to help you stay focused each month, but every few months, I recommend you go a little bit deeper. In this episode, I walk you through the critical areas of your financial plan that should be periodically reviewed and updated, ideally on a quarterly basis. 

It's normal for you and your spouse to have differences in how you view and manage money. You're different people - it would be weird if you didn't have any differences! Financial differences don't mean you're incompatible, and they don't mean that you can't get on the same page financially. But, it's critical to identify the root cause of your differences before you start trying to fix them. We cover how to do this in today's episode. Note: there will be no new episode on Thursday, April...

To register for the FREE masterclass I mention in this episode, head to http://moneymarriageblueprint.com/masterclass As a Certified Financial Planner, I've had the privilege of meeting with couples in a wide, wide variety of financial circumstances. And I've seen couples make incredible financial progress in just a short amount of time, regardless of their financial starting point. But, there's one key thing that tends to inhibit financial progress. One key characteristic that is true of...

It's really hard to make financial progress as a family if you and your spouse aren't working together. You don't need to 100% agree on everything (spoiler alert: that will never happen!) but you do need to be in alignment on the direction you're going. In today's episode, we will discuss a variety of strategies to help you get your spouse on board with the financial changes you're looking to make. Some of them are financial strategies, others focus on communication. By the time you've...

We've talked a lot about how to make financial progress on this show. But before you can start accelerating your financial progress, you need to know two things: Where your money is Where your money is going In this week's episode, I share five of my favorite strategies to bring clarity to your family's finances. If you've ever got to the end of the month, logged into your bank accounts, and wondered "how the heck did my credit card bill get so high?", then this is the episode for...

How are you and your spouse doing financially right now? It's a tough question to answer with a more detailed answer than "fine" or "not great", because most of us don't focus on the right areas and metrics when it comes to tracking our money. In this episode, I walk you through the two primary metrics I recommend using to track the progress that you and your partner are making financially. And, I share some insights on the five key qualitative areas that could be holding you back from...

On the "money" side of the "Money and Marriage" equation, there are two subjects I get questions about more than any other: How to handle student loans (particularly when one spouse has a lot more student loan debt than the other), and How to buy your first home Since the start of the New Year, I've had conversations with first time homebuyers-to-be in several competitive real estate markets (ranging from DC to LA, San Francisco to New York, Seattle to Boston) about how to handle...

One of the key themes of this podcast is that by learning how to manage your finances more effectively with your partner, your marriage will grow stronger over time. That might sound like an exaggeration - but the more time I spend working with couples on building and implementing financial plans, the more convinced I am that it's true. In this episode, I'll walk you through five detailed ways that improving the way you manage money as a team with your spouse will make your relationship...

Usually when we talk about different habits and attitudes when it comes to money in a marriage, we tend to think in terms of who is the "spender" and who is the "saver" in the relationship. Not today! In this episode, we discuss at length the difference between spouses that, in my experience, is actually more common than spending/saving differences. I share an exercise to complete with your spouse to determine how aligned you are in this area, and give you a handful of strategies to consider...

Differences in habits and attitudes around money + a lack of communication about your finances = a recipe for money fights in a marriage. Luckily, there's a solution that's both easy to implement and very time efficient. A solution that can help you improve the way you manage money as a team (despite your differences in financial habits), facilitate healthier communication around money, and empower both you and your spouse to bake better financial decisions together. Best of all - this...

When you set big and ambitious financial goals, relying on your willpower alone to achieve them usually isn't sufficient. Pure focus and determination will get you started... but the best way to stick to your goals in the long run is to hold yourself accountable to other people. Which is why I'm so excited to welcome my accountability partner, Heather Townsend, to this week's episode of the Money and Marriage podcast. Heather and I have met every Tuesday at 2 PM Eastern time since September...

There's no way around it - way too often, financial planning is intimidating. And the financial planning industry certainly doesn't do much to help make it less so. This episode is for you if you... ... have ever looked at the content most financial professionals publish about how you should have $___ saved for retirement by the time you're 30, 35, and 40, and felt woefully behind... ... have ever been confused by the jargon that financial professionals throw around (and then when you...

Most New Year's Resolutions fail. If you want to actually achieve the goals you set, you need to be intentional about how you work toward them. I'm excited to have Brittan Pack join me on today's episode to discuss how to incorporate intentional routines in your life that you'll actually stick to in the long run.  Brittan wears a lot of hats; she's a pharmacist by day, is a mom to three children under five years old, and runs multiple online businesses on the side - including an online...

In this episode, I share a behind-the-scenes look at the production of the Money and Marriage podcast, share some of the feedback I've gotten and lessons I've learned along the way, and announce a few changes to the show going forward.  We'll be changing the format to weekly episodes, to be published every Thursday morning, starting on January 7th. Thanks so much for following along on the journey, and I'm so excited to continue improving this podcast for you in the New Year!

Over 80% of New Year's Resolutions fail by the end of January. If you're looking to make long-lasting financial changes to your life, you need a different approach. In this episode, I share my preferred goal-setting approach and discuss why this approach works better than the traditional New Year's Resolutions. Let me know what you think!

I love a good spreadsheet. (I'm a financial planner, what do you expect?) But relying too heavily on spreadsheets to make financial decisions will lead you astray. Over the years, I've named this phenomenon the "Spreadsheet Wars". Fighting in the "Spreadsheet Wars" refers to the tendency to use spreadsheets (or other financial models) to project a false sense of precision in your financial plans. Talking about this concept always leads to some interesting reactions, which occasionally have...

There are a lot of good vehicles to use to invest your money. From retirement accounts, to mutual funds, and everything in between - a diversified portfolio of investments is a hallmark of any good financial plan. But in this episode, I argue that the best investment you can make in your first few decades in the workforce - and in your marriage - is in yourselves. Tune in to learn more!

You can learn a lot about someone from the books on their reading list, and I'm no different. In this episode, I share five books on "money and marriage" topics I'm excited to read for the first time in 2021, and five books I'm looking forward to re-read! The full list is below: The Psychology of Money: Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness, Morgan Housel The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work, Dr. John Gottman  Know Yourself, Know Your Money, Rachel Cruze Financial...

I loved playing with Legos when I was a kid. (If we're being honest with ourselves, I'd probably love playing with Legos now, too.) And as it turns out, there are a lot of similarities - and one crucial difference - between building a Lego set and implementing a financial plan. Tune into today's episode to learn more!

George Bailey - the honest, upstanding banker and protagonist from the 1946 film "It's a Wonderful Life" - is long gone. In today's episode, I share my favorite tips on how to achieve financial success in a world where the banks we use actually make it harder for us to manage our money effectively.