Good Morning DINKS. We are all working towards are our individual and couples financial goals. Our financial goals may include buying a home, helping out our parents during their retirement, or saving for our own retirement. It is very important for couples to start saving now for our retirement because we don’t want to be working forever.
Over the last few years as I have helped the baby boomer generation retire, I am noticing a trend amongst the older generation ( actually I am noticing the lack of a trend). Many baby boomer clients who are preparing for retirement do not have a lot of personal retirement savings. Many baby boomer clients are planning for retirement at the age of 60 or 65 because they are at the “normal” retirement age. Our parents may be emotionally prepared to retire, but they may not be financially prepared.
The retirement savings mentality during our parent’s working days was a little bit different than our mentality today. Saving for our retirement in a 401k or a Roth IRA was not as much of a priority back then as it is now. The main source of our parents aka the baby boomers retirement income is coming from their employer pension plan. It was very common for our parents to find a job right after high school and remain employed with the same company until retirement. After 30 or 35 years of working with the same employer the accumulated value of an employer pension plan can definitely add up.
Nowadays it is very uncommon for someone to start and end their career with the same employer. How many full time employers have you worked for up to this point in your career? Since my university graduation I have personally worked for 4 employers, but I don’t count 2 of them because I was employed for less than a year.
The concept of relying on someone else (aka our employer) for the financial sustainability of our retirement is a concept that I don’t fully grasp. Of course when we are planning for retirement we rely on a variety of income sources to make up our retirement income such as old age security, accumulated assets, our employer pension plan, as well as our own personal retirement savings. When we save in a personal retirement savings account we are ensuring a financially stable retirement.
During retirement DINKS can once again become a dual income no kids couple, but this time the dual income is a retirement income. Retirement is supposed to be the ultimate financial goal; after all we work our entire lives in order to retire. Sometimes our retirement income is enough to sustain our pre retirement lifestyle, sometimes our retirement income is almost enough to maintain our desired lifestyle, and sometimes our retirement savings are just not enough to maintain our lifestyle.
If our retirement income is not enough to maintain our desired lifestyle, we will be forced to make some financial decisions. At this point we have to decide if we are going to supplement our income (by continuing to work) in order to maintain our desired lifestyle, or if we are going to sacrifice our quality of life and accept the fact that we are going to have to live on less of an income than originally planned.
Photo by stevendepolo
To say that my financial life has changed over the past few years is definitely an understatement. Everything in my financial life from my income and my value of money to my personal spending and savings habits have changed over the last three years.
I used to use my credit cards to pay for all of my purchases and I was only making the minimum monthly payments. Due to my over spending and my bad money habits I found myself thousands of dollars in debt in my early twenties. If that wasn’t bad enough I kept spending money and accumulating debt because I knew that I could afford to make the minimum monthly payments on my credit cards. I used to go to work at the bank and tell my clients all about the dangers of misusing their credit cards; then I would come home and use a cash advance on my credit card to pay for my rent.
My income was able to sustain the minimum monthly payments but it was not enough to help pay down my actual credit card balances. Actually that is not 100% true, my income would have been enough to pay down my credit card balances if I managed my money better and spent a little less. I finally decided that enough was enough and I started looking for ways to supplement my income. I figured that if I had more income I could afford to pay off my credit card balances. This is true, but what really needed to change were my spending habits.
The danger of being financially irresponsible at a young age is that we can get in to a lot of debt very quickly, but it can take a very long time to pay off. The advantage (if you can call it that) of being financial irresponsible at a young age is that we have time to overcome and learn from our mistakes.
I am not proud of my financial past, but I am not ashamed of it either. I have lived to learn from my mistakes and I am thankful that I made those mistakes at a young age. If I had to think about myself making those same financial mistakes now at 31 years old I definitely panic because now the damage could be so overwhelming that I may not be able to fully overcome and recover from its effects.
I would definitely not want to be thousands of dollars in debt and trying to pay it off while I was supporting a family with children. Learning from my past financial mistakes has made me a financially responsible and mature young adult. It has also inspired me to try and help other young people with their own personal money management and financial struggles. I know what education I was lacking when I was younger and I know what information I wish that I had. I am going to try to help other young people not make the same money mistakes that I did when I was younger.
Photo by floodlama
We can love someone unconditionally, but that may imply that we don’t care about having money as a couple. Or we can love someone upon the condition that they have money, but does that may make us a bad person?
I don’t think that wanting to be in a financially stable relationship necessarily makes us a bad person; I honestly think that it makes us a smart person. I am definitely against the concept of marrying only for money, but I also would also never enter into a relationship (even if I really loved him) if I was expected to be the sole financial provider.
What if money is a condition for love?
Relationships are about planning our life with someone who shares our life goals; this includes sharing our views on love as well as sharing our views on money. The key to a successful relationship and a healthy financial life is communication. Every time that we enter into a new phase in our relationship whether it is moving in together for the first time, deciding to get married, or choosing to buy a home, we have to be open with our spouse about our feelings as well as our money management.
I am by no means a gold digger and for me personally emotions are far more important than money. However as a Financial Professional I would be lying if I said that money was not a consideration in my relationship. Actually it is not money as a tangible asset that is important, it is more about the stability that brings money and makes it stay such as smart money management skills and a steady employment income. I think that it would be very difficult to be in a relationship with someone who didn’t share similar views on money, because almost everything that we do in our lives involves money.
What if money is NOT a condition for love?
I would personally not be able to be in a relationship where I was the only one who planned for the future, saved for an emergency, and spent less money every month than I made. It took me a long time to learn how to live within my means, and as a 31 year old I think that it would be difficult to live with someone while teaching them how to be financially responsible.
I would not enter into a relationship with someone who is financially unstable, but this is not to say that I would not work through financial struggles with my boyfriend Nick. Since we grew up together we made the same money mistakes when we were younger and we have learned from our mistakes as we grew older. If something happened and Nick lost his job or he entered into a mid life crisis and started spending money recklessly I would definitely try to help him work through the financial struggles. The main reason that I would try to work through the financial struggles is because we already had love before the struggles began. I don’t think that I could choose love over money if we were just starting out, but now that we have almost 13 years invested together I don’t think that I would let money ruin our love.
Photo by MoneyBlogNewz
Good Morning DINKS and Happy Friday. This time last Friday the first big summer blockbuster movie was released in theatres. How many DINKS have seen the movie The Avengers? I am admittedly not a huge super hero or comic book fan, but I honestly really love action movies. I absolutely loved the movie Iron Man, although I did not see Thor or Captain America. Mark Ruffalo plays The Incredible Hulk in the movie The Avengers, and I absolutely love Mark Ruffalo as an actor.
I hope you all have a great weekend, and I hope that you enjoy these great posts that we found around the web for your reading pleasure. Enjoy!
- Clever Dude helps us shop for a new car in the post “10 Car Shopping Mistakes And How To Avoid Them”
- Budgets Are Sexy discusses what is right and what is wrong when it comes to money in the post “I Got Money That Doesn’t Belong to Me, BUT…”
- Adaptu helps couples cope with Income Inequality in the post “Financial Struggles in a Relationship”. Find out how other couples manage their money when one spouse earns more money.
- Dough Roller wants to know how confident you are about retirement in the post “2012 Retirement Confidence Survey”
- Financial Samurai emphasizes the need for financial responsibility in the post “Making Money Too Fast Destroys You And Everything Around You” I love this post and I personally often refer to this behaviour as “The Britney Spears Effect”.
- So Over Debt shares her wisdom with us in the post “Things I Learned on My Road Trip”
- 20 and Engaged wants to help spice up or love life in the post “Could You Have Sex for 7 Days Straight?
- Money Crashers compares our mortgage options in the post “15-Year vs. 30-Year Mortgage – Comparison, Pros & Cons”
Photo by Dave Murr
DINKS (Dual Income No Kids) Finance is a blog discussing personal finance for couples. While by no means financial experts, we own a variety of assets including real estate and stocks. We've both been up to our eyeballs in debt and have made tons of financial mistakes. However, we've both successfully retired that debt and we both do learn from our failings. We hope that our voice in this blog can help others in achieving their goals!
