After Your Wedding and Honeymoon...
Time to Get Serious About Your Household Finances
Find Out More About:
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The marriage penalty and other tax issues applicable to married couples
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Maintaining Your List of Important Documents, Accounts & Policies
Your Initial Financial Plan:
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Print Out The Eight Step Checklist to Keep Track of Your Progress
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Step 1: Calculate Your Financial APGAR Score
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Step 2: Put Together Your "Ow-Ow" (Net Worth) Statement
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Step 3: Prepare Your Monthly Cash Flow Budget
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Step 4: Set Your Savings and Debt Reduction Goals
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Step 5: Project If You're Saving Enough for Retirement
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Step 6: Work Through a Tax Projection (to Avoid Any Surprises Next April 15th)
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Step 7: Review Your Life and Disability Insurance Needs
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Step 8: Have an Attorney Draft Certain Essential Documents
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If you're able to work together and complete all 8 steps of this initial financial plan by your first anniversary, then you deserve to treat yourselves to a nice dinner at your favorite restaurant (as long as it fits within your budget).
Looking For a CPA, Lawyer or Financial Advisor who has worked with lots of other newlyweds and is familiar with the issues that affect you?
Exchanging wedding vows is a precious moment shared by a bride and a groom. It is a time of joy, hope, and optimism. Husband and wife, setting out to spend their lives together.
In today's world, however, newlyweds face a variety of challenges; many of which stem directly from the financial decisions all couples must make. NewlywedFinances.com has been designed to address the basic financial planning issues encountered by newly married couples. Included as part of our site is an eight step initial financial plan which you and your spouse can work through together.
Q. How Do You Resuscitate Your Household Budget?
A. Use CPR ... of course
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Communicate
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Plan
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Review
Preparing your initial financial plan is a two person job. Make sure to sit down with your spouse and get his or her input on the initial plan. The best scenario is when both spouses set aside some time to work through the eight step financial plan together. And as your financial situation evolves, you'll have the most success if you continue to communicate and work together on your household finances.
Why did we put NewlywedFinances.com up on the web?
After years of working as CPAs and meeting with hundreds of young professionals, we saw that most newly married couples have lots of questions about their finances and aren't sure how to go about putting together an initial financial plan. We're pleased to provide a web site that contains the tools to help newlyweds put together a basic financial plan.
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A Few Financial Rules of Thumb:
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Try to save at least 15% of your gross salary for your retirement.
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Your monthly mortgage payments should not exceed 1/2 of your monthly take-home pay
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If you're only making the minimum payment on your credit cards, or if your monthly payments on your credit cards exceed 20% of your monthly take-home pay, you're carrying too much credit card debt.
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Newlywed's To Do List:
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Update the beneficiaries on your life insurance policies and your 401(k) and IRA retirement accounts
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If you changed your last name, file a Form SS-5 with the Social Security Administration
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Resources Available at NewlywedFinances.com:
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Our NewlywedFinances Message Board, where you can post your questions and suggestions
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An On-line Retirement Calculator where you can find out what your retirement savings will REALLY be worth when you retire
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Keep up-to-date with our Tax and Financial Planning Calendar
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Download our (Microsoft Excel) debt/savings calculator at calculator.xls to calculate how much you need to set aside each month to pay off a debt or reach a savings goal.
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An Excel Template that you can download to help you keep track of your important documents, accounts, and policies is available at idap_list.xls.
