Introduction
Today, I want to dive into a topic that’s near and dear to my heart: the intersection of money and relationships. As a married couple, my husband and I often find ourselves fielding questions about how we manage our finances together. I recently took to Instagram to gather your burning questions, and now, I’m excited to address some of the most common inquiries.
Let’s jump right into it!
Shared or Split Accounts: A Journey to Financial Unity
One of the initial questions we encounter frequently is whether we have shared or split accounts, including investments. At present, my husband and I have combined our finances. However, it wasn’t always this way. In the early stages of our relationship, we maintained separate bank accounts. It wasn’t until we moved in together that we decided to create a joint account, which we use for shared expenses like the mortgage, utilities, and groceries. Over time, this transition facilitated a smoother management of our finances, allowing us to streamline our efforts.
Interestingly, we have a joint personal bank account, a joint online business account, and even a joint real estate bank account. By separating our financial responsibilities in this manner, we ensure that funds remain organized and earmarked for their specific purposes. While having separate personal accounts, we’ve transitioned to predominantly using joint accounts, which aligns with our mutual goals and aspirations.
Investment Management: A Collaborative Approach
The question often arises: “Is it easier to manage investments as a couple?” Our experience suggests that it can indeed be more manageable when both partners share similar financial goals. Our investment strategies align, making it simpler to monitor and grow our portfolio together.
We’ve each played to our strengths, with me handling the big-picture planning and my husband focusing on operational tasks like email sequences and funnel management.
Recommendations for Financial Literacy
As far as recommendations go, I’d suggest some insightful books that have helped us along the way.
While they may not specifically focus on couples and money, they provide valuable insights into personal finance. These include “The 4-Hour Workweek,” “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” “The Simple Path to Wealth,” and “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.” My husband also suggests “The Millionaire Teacher” for its eye-opening perspective on achieving financial success through prudent investing.
Embarking on the Journey of Financial Literacy
If you’re wondering how and where to start with financial literacy, remember that education is key. Alongside books, our YouTube channels delve into topics like money management, passive income, real estate investment, and side hustles.
For those seeking a structured approach, our “Rental Ready Finances” course covers essential aspects such as saving for a down payment, credit improvement, and debt management.
Investing on a Single Income
Now, addressing the concern of investing on a single income – it’s absolutely possible. The key lies in efficient budgeting and expense reduction. It’s about making deliberate choices to prioritize saving and investing, even in challenging circumstances. Consider exploring more affordable markets for real estate investments, and ensure you both communicate and strategize during your available time.
Entrepreneurial Partnerships: A Balance of Strengths
For us, working together as a couple has been an enriching experience. By combining our individual strengths, we’ve managed to build a business that aligns with our passions and values. We maintain a delicate balance, dedicating a significant portion of our day to our relationship and allowing our partnership to flourish both personally and professionally.
Celebrating Financial Freedom: Our Favorite Part of the Journey
As we reflect on our journey towards financial freedom, we’re truly grateful for the freedom it has afforded us. Our favorite aspect has been the fusion of our passions with our livelihoods. Witnessing the positive impact on others – their stories of real estate investments inspired by us, and the steps they’ve taken to improve their finances – has been immensely fulfilling.
This journey has exceeded our wildest expectations and has enabled us to live life on our terms, embracing each moment with gratitude.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the dynamics of money and relationships can be beautifully intertwined when approached with intention and understanding. Our journey as a couple navigating finances has taught us the importance of alignment, communication, and collaboration.
With shared goals and a commitment to ongoing learning, you too can create a harmonious balance between your financial aspirations and your relationship.
Below is a transcription of the podcast. This transcription was taken from Otter.ai so it might not be completely accurate:
Sharon Tseung 0:02
This is the digital nomad quest podcast with Sharon Tseung. teaching people how to build passive income, become financially free and design their best lives. Hey, guys, it’s Sharon.
Unknown Speaker 0:14
I’m Sean and today we’re gonna answer your questions
Sharon Tseung 0:16
about couples and money. So as you guys know, we are a married couple. And we often get questions about our relationship with money and how we manage our finances. So I actually put up an Instagram story recently asking you guys what questions you guys had. So let’s just get right into it. We’re going to answer your questions here. So first off, do you have shared or split accounts including investing. So currently,
Speaker 3 0:36
we actually have combined our finances, and we do have joint checking accounts, although obviously, when we were first dating, and before we got married, we did have our own separate bank accounts. And it was only until maybe three years in when you actually moved in with me that we created a joint account and started contributing to that joint account. And then from that joint account is where we make our expenses such as our mortgage expenses, utility bills, and whatever you buy for stuff like food or shopping, when we
Sharon Tseung 0:59
first open that joint account, we were kind of contributing to it equally, and then spending out of it. Whenever we ate out together or did activities together. I think after getting married, we basically only use those joint accounts. So we have one joint personal bank account, and then a joint online business account where it basically handles social media stuff like sponsorships, core sales, anything like that. And we have a credit card tied to it. So whatever online business expenses we have, we charge it to that card. And then we also have the joint real estate bank account. So
Speaker 3 1:29
with that real estate bank account, this thing takes all of our income from rental properties, but also handles all of our expenses. So anytime we make a major repair, pay contractor anything to do with any real estate properties that comes out of that real estate bank account, by doing it this way, it keeps all of our finances and taxes all in one neat place. So instead of commingling funds here and there, you know that okay, this is from real estate, he goes to this real estate account, if it’s a social media business related goes to this account, and it’s personal, it goes to the personal account.
Sharon Tseung 1:53
Yeah, we do have our separate personal like I mentioned earlier, and we rarely use it now maybe for gifts or something like that. But generally, we kind of put everything together, we do business together and everything like that. So it just makes everything easy. We also recently opened a high yield savings account to help with funding some of our personal goals. And we opened a dividend portfolio on M one finance, which I’ll link below and then also a joint brokerage account where we’re doing recurring transfers to this account to invest in index funds as well as ETFs like Q QQ
Speaker 3 2:23
question number two, is it easier to manage your investments as a couple to me,
Sharon Tseung 2:27
I don’t think it’s really different because we both share the same goals, and we invest kind of similarly. So it’s kind of like how I was managing my own account. Before I had my own spreadsheet, I was tracking my net worth and all of the different things and then I combined our different accounts and just put it together. So now I have like a combined net worth spreadsheet. I also use personal capital to track everything. So use it in my link below if you guys are interested in that. But basically, it’s like the same process for me.
Speaker 3 2:56
So I would say yes, it is actually easier to invest as a couple because again, we do have similar goals. So it wasn’t that hard. If in your relationship, you have one person who’s more financially savvy versus another one who doesn’t really know that much. Obviously, it’s gonna be easier, right? Because you just have one person handling all the finances on investing to make sure that everything is going well actually, you’re
Sharon Tseung 3:11
right, I know that with a real estate portfolio you do like look over different things that sometimes I kind of leave to the side and then I’m looking at the bank accounts and everything like that. So we kind of split up the work in certain ways. And recently for example, I saw in our real estate bank account that like this property management company actually charged us for the amount that they were supposed to credit us so like we can kind of both keep track of our accounts and different properties. I think it’s actually a good thing that we both have eyes on everything. It’s kind of like having a team instead of your own self so you’re right like there are different things that make it easier I would say it is again like you said easier when you’re both on the same page. Next question What books do you recommend?
Unknown Speaker 3:52
I don’t know if you have any books about managing finances as a couple Yeah, I
Sharon Tseung 3:55
think the ones that I recommend are four hour workweek Rich Dad Poor Dad I think The Simple Path to Wealth was good I’ll Teach You To Be Rich was good I feel like he’s we’re not specifically about couples and money. But I think that any couple like both partners should be studying personal finance themselves should be watching our channels and learning about these different fundamentals studies show that a lot of couples break up because of money. So make sure you’re educating yourself I would recommend those four books. Do you have any other ones to add?
Speaker 3 4:21
Yeah, going back to your point I don’t think there’s any really good books for couples specifically but I think one book was really helpful for me was a book called The Millionaire teacher and it kind of opened my eyes because someone who was making pretty modest salary was able to become a millionaire through investing again if you can learn how to invest yourself that you can share with your partner and then you can be successful together how and where do you get started with financial literacy? So
Sharon Tseung 4:41
aside from the books that I mentioned in the previous question, I would say check out our channels right we talk all about managing your money building more income through side hustles as well as real estate investing and we also have a course called round already finances if you guys are interested. We had a lot of questions about how to like save for your down payment how to fix your Credit how to get out of debt. So then we package this information in this curriculum. So go ahead and check it out in the link in my description in case you guys are interested. Next question, if only one of us is working, how can we invest? And then I remember they message me privately as an addendum, we are in California, my husband only works, we have kids, and we still have time to invest,
Speaker 3 5:19
you definitely have the opportunity to invest. Now the question is, how much can you invest. And I think that depends on how well you’re able to budget and save based on how much income your one partner is making. So naturally, if you are spending everything and everything left, then it’s gonna be very hard for you. If you can find ways to reduce costs on what you’re spending, maybe you know, reduce the amount of money you’re spending on food, maybe reduce your housing expenses, if possible, yes, learn to invest the difference and asking about having time to invest, there’s a saying that goes the best 100 plant a tree was 20 years ago, the best time is today, you can’t do anything about the past. So the best you can do is build a foundation for your future when
Sharon Tseung 5:48
it comes to having enough time to invest. I think the beauty of investing is it doesn’t take like a ton of time, right is different from building a whole online business. You know, if you are putting money in index funds and ETFs, you just put it there, be patient with it, instead of trying to buy and sell all the time. And then you have recurring transfers that will continuously grow. Or if you buy real estate, if you have a property management company, it’ll make everything passive, right. So you do the work once and then it’ll keep giving you gains over time. That’s the beauty of investing. That’s why I think everyone has time to do it. Even if you just spend a few minutes a day, you’re going to be able to do some research within that time period that’s going to gradually build up over time. So I would say little actions over time are gonna give you big results. So start now you guys do have time go ahead and try it out. I also kind of wanted to address her personal situation, it looks like he’s in California, one of the things we did when we were in California and we wanted to invest in real estate, we decided to look out of state we started to buy in Texas, Florida, Georgia. So these are more affordable markets that we can invest in, that’s one thing you guys should do is to start researching your market trying to figure out where you want to invest. And then you mentioned that your husband works while you are taking care of the kids. Maybe you guys can craft some time together after work. And maybe when the kids are asleep that you guys can talk about your finances and what you can invest in. And then like Shawn mentioned, you got to make sure you are trying to cut your expenses, so you have some money that you can invest. So we hope that helps. So next questions are ones that we have heard a lot from meetups and conferences, people come up to us and ask us these things. So we often get asked, What’s it like doing business together?
Speaker 3 7:24
I mean, I love it. It’s great. You know, she’s the boss, she tells me what to do. And are you are you.
Sharon Tseung 7:28
Okay, that’s not totally true. But I do think that I enjoy that big picture planning and strategizing, you’re good operationally. So as an example, with email sequences, like the whole architecting funnels, and everything like that, that’s like not something I enjoy. Whereas for you, you’re like, Alright, I’m on it, like I’m gonna get these things done. So I think we have our different strengths and weaknesses, which makes it better when we can come together on specific goals that we’re trying to attain, I think one of the challenges is when we have like different visions of what we want to do, and we’re not aligned on the same goals. But when we are like, it’s pretty awesome, because we complement each other a lot.
Speaker 3 8:03
Another thing that we do pretty well is we don’t make our whole lives about the business. So I would say we probably spend 10 to 20% of our day on the business and then 80% on the relationship. And we know that I guess from seeing a lot of our friends or other people who have gone down the business path and failed, we don’t want to be like them, right? So we want to make sure that our relationship stays as strong as possible. Or you know, the business. The cool thing about being in a relationship with you is that we’re both individually very competent people. And we’ve both created our own social media platforms and our own businesses. So then together, we are stronger for us.
Sharon Tseung 8:31
And I think with our separate journeys and jointly, like we’ve built that time freedom now, which allows us to spend a lot more time with each other. And that was one of our goals doing this whole journey, right. We wanted to make sure we had enough time for our loved ones, our family. And now we have that. So we always make sure to have that good balance between business and relationship.
Speaker 3 8:50
The last question is what’s your favorite part about your financial freedom journey together?
Sharon Tseung 8:54
I think I kind of touched upon this earlier, but because we have the same goals, I’m amazed by the freedom we built for ourselves. And honestly, where we are today was something I’ve never imagined myself being able to attain because back in the day, I was like, you know, I’m happy with just 4k a month passively or five came on passively. I was like that’s already amazing to me. And I would be able to possibly leave my job and figure out how to lower my expenses. I never have to work again. And I didn’t need much right I still don’t need much. It’s amazing how we’ve been able to build something that surpasses all my expectations as well as it’s actually fulfilling. We are actually helping people we’re getting people who talk to us at meetups and conferences are like yo, I like bought a rental property because of you I’ve been working on my finances because of you and it’s actually making a difference. So it’s like everything’s kind of like combining together the part of making a living from it but also being passionate about it. I guess that’s my favorite part. It’s surpassed everything that I expected say
Speaker 3 9:51
most for me to like my biggest thing was I did not want to work full time at a job and then see my life go away and be 60 years old and regretting my life decision but you live amazing lives right Now I get to do cool stuff, travel, whatever he wants. You don’t have to get boss’s permission to go somewhere on a random Wednesday afternoon and I’m blessing I spent all my time with you. So I’m having a great time.
Sharon Tseung 10:08
So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Please make sure to rate review and subscribe. It really helps our podcast grow. And thanks again. I’ll see you guys in the next one.
