The Credit Professional Winter 2018 Dec_2018_magazine | Page 33

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you can make as a married
couple is to simply keep your
marriage strong. If your
marriage is strong, you won’t
get a divorce, and that’s going
to be one of the best things you
can do financially.
How do you work on your
marriage? The best thing you
can do is spend time together,
preferably time that isn’t spent
on passive things like watching
television. Do active things
together. Talk to each
other often.
Sarah and I make it a point to
have at least a few healthy
conversations each and every
day. Yes, there are days where
we don’t get much face to face
time until after the kids are in
bed in the evening, but at that
point we’ll always talk about
our respective days.
is also helping. Do things
together. Set aside time for it
if you need to, which may be
necessary if you have children.
Doing things together can
become the glue of
your marriage.
About the author:
Trent Hamm is the founder of
The Simple Dollar, a website
covering practical personal
finance issues for everyone.
We talk about goals. We talk
Final Thoughts
He is the author of two books,
about the state of the world.
"The Simple Dollar: How One
We talk about the things in
A marriage can be a wonderful Man Wiped Out His Debts and
the world that are on each of
thing. Having someone in your Achieved the Life of His Dreams"
our minds.
life that you can rely on, who
and "365 Ways to Live Cheap."
genuinely loves you, and who is He has appeared in many
We also do a lot of things
making life choices that benefit publications including The New
together. We play board games. you as well as a life-changing
York Times, The Washington
We go for walks. We exercise a and life-affirming thing.
Post and The Wall Street
little. We work on projects
Journal. He currently lives in
around the house.
However, a marriage isn’t an
Iowa with his wife and
automatic thing. It’s not always three children.
One of our favorite things to
going to be easy, and money is
do together is housecleaning.
often one of the biggest
We’ll both spend 20 minutes
challenges in marriage.
cleaning the kitchen and living
room at the same time, so we
If you use these ten pieces of
talk together during the
financial advice and take most
entire cleaning period. It’s a
of them to heart, you’ll find that
surprisingly effective way to
the financial problems (and
bond, because not only are we some of the other challenges) in
having a great conversation,
your marriage become much
we’re both working toward
easier to handle.
making the house better for all
and we know that our partner
Good luck!
The Credit Professional
32
December 2018