What to Do If Your Spouse is Bad With Money

If you’re unhappy with your partner’s spending habits, you’re not alone. One in five people in a relationship think their partner is bad with money, making them 10 times more likely to break up in the future.*

So, what’s your plan, then? Do nothing and see what happens? Or take a few steps to get on the same financial page with your partner?

While there’s no one right way for couples to handle their finances, here are some things you can do to potentially repair some damage and get on the right financial track moving forward. Together.

1. Have Open and Honest Money Talks Regularly

When it comes to a relationship’s financial success, being on the same page with your spouse is kind of a big deal. The truth is, they might not even realize they’re bad at money until you talk to them.

Scheduling regular conversations to discuss financial concerns and expectations will help you and your partner set realistic money goals while avoiding negative surprises. You might even learn that some of your own spending habits need to change.

Yes, if you both aren’t used to talking about money, this will feel a little awkward at first, but it will get easier over time. And, for the sake of your relationship’s long-term health — and maybe more importantly — your own happiness, it will be totally worth it.

2. Ask This Website to Help Pay Your Credit Card Bills This Month

Your credit card company doesn’t really care if it was you or your partner who racked up the credit card debt. It’s getting rich by ripping both of you off with high interest rates — some up to 36%. But a website called AmOne wants to help.

If you owe your credit card companies $50,000 or less, AmOne will match you with a low-interest loan you can use to pay off every single one of your balances.

The benefit? You’ll be left with one bill to pay each month. And because personal loans have lower interest rates (AmOne rates start at 2.49% APR), you’ll get out of debt that much faster. Plus: No credit card payment this month.

AmOne keeps your information confidential and secure, which is probably why after 20 years in business, it still has an A+ rating with the Better Business Bureau.

It takes two minutes to see if you qualify for up to $50,000 online. You do need to give AmOne a real phone number in order to qualify, but don’t worry — they won’t spam you or your partner with phone calls.

3. Simplify Your Budget

Want to manage your money as an actual team? Create a budget. Ew, gross. We know. But it’s important to take a good look at what you’re both spending and where you can both cut back.

If you’re not sure where to even start, we favor the 50/20/30 budgeting method for its simplicity. Here’s how it works:

• 50% of your income goes toward essentials.
• 20% goes toward financial goals.
• 30% goes toward personal spending.

The key is to accept you can’t create the perfect budget in an hour. You’ll have to experiment to find what works best for your relationship.

4. Raise Your Credit Score — and this Company Will Pay You up to $100

When one or both of you have damaged your credit score, it can really mess with your future financial goals — whether that’s buying a house, or taking out a loan for something else.

We all want to improve our credit score. And we’d all like to save a little more money. Good news: We found an online debit account that will pay you up to $100 every month for certain improvements you make to your credit score.**

It’s called Sesame Cash, an online bank account from Credit Sesame that comes with its own debit card. Here’s how it works: Simply add on Sesame Cash while signing up with Credit Sesame to get your free credit score and put in $25 to get started and activate your rewards.  Then, put $25 toward the account each following month. This is a perfect way to set aside some money for emergencies — it’s out of sight, out of mind and will be there when you need it. It works like a prepaid debit card, but it’s so much more.

Even better, Sesame Cash will monitor your credit score and give you up to $100 when your credit score goes up.** To help you keep track, the Sesame Cash account lets you see what’s changed in your score every day, when you deposit $25 each month.***

Once the money is deposited into your Sesame Cash Account, you can spend it however you want to — after that open conversation with your partner, right? And if it’s at one of the more than 5,000 stores Sesame Cash partners with, like Burger King, Sephora or Walmart, you could earn up to 15% back instantly on your purchase.**** It’s like a gift that keeps on giving.

Creating a Sesame Cash bank account is quick and secure — we’re talking bank-level encryption. And if you need to raise your credit score anyway, getting paid to do it makes the process that much sweeter.

5. Find Out If You’re Overpaying

If you or your partner are trying to be more conscious of how much you’re spending on things, wouldn’t it be nice if you got an alert when you’re shopping online at Target and are about to overpay?

That’s exactly what this free service does.

Just add it to your browser for free, and before you check out, it’ll check other websites, including Walmart, eBay and others to see if your item is available for cheaper. Plus, you can get coupon codes, set up price-drop alerts and even see the item’s price history.

Let’s say you’re shopping for a new TV, and you assume you’ve found the best price. Here’s when you’ll get a pop up letting you know if that exact TV is available elsewhere for cheaper. If there are any available coupon codes, they’ll also automatically be applied to your order.

In the last year, this has saved people $160 million.

You can get started in just a few clicks to see if you’re overpaying online.

6. Save Up to $610/Year When You Use This Website To Find New Car Insurance

When you’re looking to cut spending in your relationship, every dollar counts. Did you know you can save some serious money just by switching car insurance companies?

It’s true — rates are at historic lows, and you could be paying way less for the same coverage. All you need to do is look for it.

But don’t waste your time hopping around to different insurance companies. Use a website called EverQuote to see all your options at once.

EverQuote is the largest online marketplace for insurance in the US, so you’ll get the top options from more than 175 different carriers handed right to you.

Take a couple of minutes to answer some questions about yourself and your driving record. With this information, EverQuote will be able to give you the top recommendations for car insurance. In just a few minutes, you could save up to $610 a year.

7. Cancel Your Forgotten Subscriptions

Keeping track of your household’s subscription services can feel like a game of whack-a-mole. Just when you think you’ve got a handle on them all, another random charge pops up on your bank statement.

It’s easy to let it slide — $5 here, $10 there. But it can seriously add up. Luckily, an app called Rocket Money can show you exactly where you’re wasting money on forgotten subscriptions and bills that are overcharging you. It saves the average person $720 a year.

Rocket Money helps you find and cancel things like unused streaming subscriptions and expired free trials, and they’ll also negotiate lower monthly rates with your internet company, phone company and other bills — for the same service.

Rocket Money has already saved users more than $245 million, and it uses Plaid to make sure all your sensitive information is safe. The app does all the heavy lifting. All you have to do is sign off on these money-saving changes.

It takes just a few minutes to get started and see how much you could save this year. Just register an account and link your bank account, then sit back while Rocket Money goes to work.

8. Are You an Online Shopper? Copy This Strategy To Get a $526 Refund

Chances are you do some of your shopping online. Whether it’s pet food from Walmart, toilet paper on Target or even a flight to the in-laws for Thanksgiving, you’re probably leaving money on the table.

A free website called Rakuten has the hookup with just about every online store you shop, which means it can give you a kickback every time you buy.

In fact, since Denver resident Colleen Rice started using Rakuten, it’s sent her checks in the mail totaling $526.44. For doing nothing. Seriously. Rice says she uses Rakuten for things she already has to buy, like rental cars and flights.

It takes less than 60 seconds to create a Rakuten account and start shopping. All you need is an email address, then you can immediately start shopping your go-to stores through the site.

Plus, if you use Rakuten to earn money back within the first 90 days of signing up, it’ll give you an extra $10 on the first check it sends you. Talk about money for nothing.

9. Learn How to Build Healthy Money Habits, Together

One way to be a supportive partner is to learn and improve, together.

You might not want to take a Personal Finance 101 class together, but seize the opportunity now and listen to podcasts or read books — and, ahem, more of The Penny Hoarder. Shameless plug.

*https://www.policygenius.com/personal-finance/news/couples-money-survey-2019/

**This is a limited time offer. To be eligible for cash rewards, a deposit of $25.00, every 30 days, must be made into your Sesame Cash account. Rewards earnings are available for credit score improvements of ten points or more within a 30-day reward cycle. Improvements are calculated from your baseline credit score, as determined by Credit Sesame. Please review the full program terms for more details.

***This is a limited time offer. To be eligible for daily credit score refreshes, a deposit of $25.00, every 30 days, must be made into your Sesame Cash account. Daily refreshes will appear within 24-48 hours of deposit. 

****Cash back offers are powered by Empyr, Inc. Cash back requires the activation of any active offer before payment is made. Payment must be processed as a credit transaction and made before the offer expires. Offers vary by geographic location and are subject to change. Please review the full program terms for more details. 

*****Capital One Shopping compensates us when you get the extension using the links provided.

This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.