Communication – Why It’s Important for You and Your Financial Future

When it comes to relationships, finances can play a very tricky role in them. It’s important to have good communication skills when it comes to your finances. This ensures not only the success of your relationships but also your financial health. Today, we’ll talk about how.

Communication supports your marriage.

Now, I know not all of our readers out there are married. Don’t tune out! This is the first of many reasons how good communication skills can support your relationships.

For those of you who are married, good communication skills are vital for the success of your marriage. Often times, two people who enter into a relationship are different when it comes to personalities. Especially when it comes to finances, they are wired differently. This is where communication comes into play. You have to have good conversations about your finances, your spending, and your savings. It’s not an option to simply “sweep it under the rug”, even if it’s a difficult conversation. I know for me, especially when we were first starting out, it was difficult for me to own up to things that I had bought, to my husband. Other times, I felt guilty about going into budget meetings, knowing that we needed to spend money in certain areas, but not wanting to have the difficult conversations to do so.

However, when I finally did make the decision to start communicating with my husband about our finances, it significantly improved things. We started to work together on the budget, rather than separately. We made decisions together, and we started to spend within our budget together, rather than working separately within the budget.

Communication can strengthen your critical relationships.

Often times, when one starts living on a budget, expenses need to be cut. But, things can get tricky when those around us do not have the same lifestyle. What do you do when friends and family want to go out to dinner, to fancy restaurants to celebrate birthdays? Or out to for entertainment like football games, movies, etc?

It can be difficult, as it’s important to spend time with loved ones. At the same time, financial health is just as important. This is where communication comes into play. There can be room in the budget for these things, but it’s important to have a balance. You need to have realistic expectations going into it, that you may not be able to do all of the things that family and friends want to do. When opportunities arise, you need to choose what I have learned is your “best yes”. What can you afford to do, and will also bring you joy?

When it’s not in the budget, the answer is simple. You get to tell your loved ones that the special event is not in the budget. It’s a great sharing opportunity, where you can share with others what you are working to accomplish. Although there may not be an ability to participate in all of the events, there are other options. Start to think creatively of other things you can do with loved ones, that are low cost. Have a homecooked dinner and game night, in lieu of an expensive dinner out. Invite friends over to watch the big game with a potluck style meal, instead of tailgating to the stadium. There are a lot of options.

Communication builds your relationship with yourself.

When you start communicating well with others, and with loved ones, something else starts to happen. It starts to benefit you and your self-care. You learn to say no to others when opportunities arise that you can’t fit into your budget, and it strengthens your self-motivation to stay on the path.

Another thing happens when you start to communicate better. You learn to start communicating better with yourself. You can see where to restrict yourself, and where to allow yourself to splurge. Often, I find myself having an internal dialogue when it comes to purchases that I need to make. Do I really want to buy this? Does it fit within my budget?

When it comes to events, I can start to have conversations about the trade-offs. If we go out to dinner with family this weekend, I won’t be able to go out for dinner with my husband next weekend. If I buy shoes now, I won’t be able to buy something else later. These are conversations that have happened as a result of me increasing my communication on all fronts.

There you have it! Communication strengthens your relationships in multiple areas – with your family, friends, significant other, and yourself. When you strengthen those areas, your financial health will follow suit.