My dear friend Amy and her husband have found such a great solution to their differing strengths when it comes to finances. I want to share it with you today in the hope that it might also give you some ideas to finding creative solutions to coming together in your own finances. Amy is fantastic at organization, but the responsibility of paying the bills can be overwhelming to her. So she and her husband came up with a plan. They have a Finance binder and every month all during the month Amy opens the mail, sorts it and files it in the binder. In addition to the dividers for the different types of bills and statements, she has two other sections… bills due at the beginning of the month and bills due in the middle of the month. Twice a month, Nathan sits down with the binder and goes through the appropriate section and pays the bills. That way Nathan is fully aware of what is happening in their finances and carrying that responsibility and at the same time, Amy’s strength at organization is being completely utilized so that they are supporting each other. They are both aware of what is happening in their finances and have an open dialog about where their money is going.
This is a wonderful example of how to utilize a Finance Binder and of how to combine your strengths to soar. This obviously is not the answer to every situation, but if you are married, it is really important that both of you are aware of what is happening in your finances. You both spend money, and therefore in order to make a budget work, you have to both understand the purpose behind it. Even if you don’t think your spouse has any strength when it comes to finances, if you are in debt, or feel trapped by lack, or maybe just never seem to make any forward progress, may I just suggest that there may be more strength in your partner than you realize. And if you are both weak in this area, I have good news for you too. God loves to give strength to the weak and nothing welcomes His presence like being in agreement.