Facing Your Spouse’s Overspending

Planning & Saving
on January 10, 2013

When you marry someone, you are putting your financial fortunes together. Your credit will be considered jointly, and some couples will decide to combine their accounts into one joint venture. However, what happens if you and your spouse have different spending habits? If your spouse is someone who overspends on a regular basis, you need to sit down and have a serious talk.

Approach With Love and Truth
The thing to remember is that money is always a charged thing. If you are angry or snippy when you confront your spouse about the issue, they are going to respond in kind. Remember that you are facing them for the health of your relationship as much as for the money itself, and remember that you love them. Be calm when you speak with them, but tell the truth about your concerns. Tell them why you are worried and what you are afraid the consequences might be.

Work Out a Plan
If this is the first time that you have approached your spouse about overspending, make sure that you do not give them a plan to follow. If this becomes a repeated issue, you may need to hammer out a plan on your own and present it to them, but if you have never talked about this before, it is essential to come up with a plan that you create together. They may decide that they should cut up their credit cards or that they should make a budget of their own. The more they are willing to do for themselves, the better.

Bring In a Professional
In some cases, overspending is a type of behavior with some serious roots. For example, overspending, especially when it is done in short and ill-considered bursts, can be a sign of mental disorders like borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder. If you are worried that that is the case, it is important get the help of a mental professional. If the overspending is specifically a result of stress, ask your significant other to talk to a counselor about the issue.

Financial Counseling
One issue is that your spouse might overspend when you are specifically saving up for something. If that is the case, you might want to seek joint financial counseling. A counselor can give you a plan and a budget to stick to in order to reach your goal, and they can also give you some perspective. Sometimes, your significant other might need to hear it from someone else, so be ready to bring in a third party of necessary.
It is never easy to talk to someone that you love about their spending habits, but unfortunately, it might be necessary. Take a few minutes to think about what you need to do!

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