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A lot of Hard Rockers are
newlyweds and they asked me these questions :
1. Who should be handling the
money once we're married?
2. Do we need separate accounts?
3. Who should pay for children
education fund? Who should buy the house?
The first thing a newlywed should
do is : NGOBROL!
You just need to talk to your new
bride / groom about money. It's not an easy thing to do, but it's a MUST.
My experience talking about money
with my better half, Sang Pangeran aka Baby D, was relatively easy.
We met in Perth, Western Australia.
During our 4 years studying and living in Perth,
we went through the wonderful years of Krismon in 1997-1998. Australian Dollar
was Rp 1800 / AUD before it spiked up to its all time high of Rp 12,000 / AUD.
So we had to join our monthly allowances (from our parents) and took up part
time jobs in order to survive.
I was trained to manage our very
limited joint allowance, by separating which part was for grocery shopping,
transportation, campus expenses, or big things such as compulsory medical
insurance.
When we got married, at 21 years
old, My Baby D was used to the idea that I managed all his money. Fortunately
we were a good match. I was the detailed person, he was too busy. So the idea
that I manage the money is not because I'm the female in the relationship, but
because I'm the one who is better equipped with financial knowledge and also
because he couldn't be bothered by little details. (Teteup deh feminista! Heheheh 
)
We do not have separate accounts.
We consider all our accounts, whether it's under his name or my name, to be
OURS.
I like the idea that my husband
is the provider. Thank God, being the male chauvinist that he is, he likes that
idea too. Alhamdulillah, rejeki nya pun memang begitu .
Here's what we do. We've been
using this ‘Hananto System of Money Management' for 11 years of our lives
together now .
My husband works in a foreign
bank. So he controls the transfers, it's just easier. On the 25th
of each month, he receives his salary and transfers parts of it to Account A
for Back Up Cash, Account B for investment purposes (which goes to
Reksadana), Account C (my account) for the kids monthly expenses and Account
D (my other account) to pay for our credit cards' bills. I'm
the runner. I go to the ATM / Banks to pay for our bills, buy our
groceries, withdraw money for weekly cash expenses, and so on.
Who plans our investment?
My Planning Director does. I can do my own planning but I'd rather not because
I don't want to argue with my husband. His rule is : "I'm always right". So let
Mbak TJ handles our planning .
Who runs our investment?
Our lovely Relationship Manager of a bank called Mbak Yulia. She does our
regular subscription of Reksadana every 5th of the each month.
Who manages our investment?
Those wonderful investment management companies ofcourse!
We are comfortable with the
‘partnership' style in the relationship.
I've met couples who are very
different and they are doing just fine.
They are the couples who decided
to have pre-nup or separation of wealth and liabilities, that's ok too. Whatever
works for you!
The important thing is to
understand that, you need to TALK ABOUT YOUR MONEY.
So the ACTION PLAN FOR NEWLYWEDS
ARE :
- NGOBROL!
Dan dicatet! Talk about how much your salaries are, what you have and what
you owe. This is your financial check up together.
- NGOBROL!
Dan dicatet! What do you want together? What kind of life you want to
share together? What are your financial goals?
- How
you want to achieve these goals. Create your Financial Plan together and
make it happen. Look at products that make sense to you. If you want 15
billion for your pension fund, don't do savings 1 mio/ month. If you want
VIP rooms when you got sick, don't buy insurance with Rp 200thousand/day
hospital room coverage.
- Create
your bank account system. When hubby receives his salary, should he
transfer this to wife's account so she can manage it? Vise versa. Should
hubby pays for all household bills or should hubby and wife combine their
income to pay for all household bills together or should each of them pick
on which expense to pay?
- Last
but not least, if you want to share your life with the one, you should share your money success & money
trouble as well!
Finance Should Be Practical!
Ligwina Hananto
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