Design a budget...

Do you and your spouse have a budget?

Every business operates with a budgetary plan. In fact, there’s an aspect of marriage that should operate like a business. It needs to be run with the same principles in mind. The goal is to operate in the black and not in the red as a married couple. Today, one of the leading causes of divorce is financial failure. A budget helps you both work toward financial goals, and live within the means of your financial structure.

There are lots of online tools and programs that can help with budgeting, but having a budget all boils down to the same basics:

• Plan what you spend before you spend it
• Stop spending when you reach the amount allocated in the budget
• Don’t spend more than you make!

No one ever said it was easy, but a budget is critical to allowing you to achieve your financial goals and find economic success. For more on this topic, see the full blog at the link in our profile

When Dan and I got married, I had no idea what a budget was. My dad had taught me to pay cash for what I wanted, and not to owe anyone anything, but that’s not a foundation for understanding how to really manage money. By the time I met Dan, I had bounced about three checks, I had never tithed, and I did not know how to use a credit card. Needless to say, my knight-in-shining-armor came through. In no time, he had encouraged me to manage my check book, pay off my car, and taught me how to use and pay off a credit card at the end of every month. \

The biggest thing Dan taught me was the importance of tithing. I had always struggled with staying out of the red each month. I had started tithing since arriving in Atlanta, but I still didn’t understand it. Furthermore, I was tithing off my take home pay and not my gross pay. Dan quickly helped me to understand the difference and why it was important to tithe from the entire check. Once I implemented that change, my entire financial situation changed. I never struggled again.

If you are a couple struggling with these concepts, it’s never too late to back up and regroup. There’s no time like the present to get your financial spreadsheet in order. What you do now will pay off tomorrow in your marriage and your finances. We manage our money well because God calls it stewardship. When we steward what we have, God can trust us with more. We don’t tithe for what we can get, we tithe because everything we have has been God’s provision Tithing is an act of gratitude. Our job, our health, our income all began with him and his desires his BEST for our lives. Your marriage matters to God, and if you manage the business side of your marriage well, your relationship can be restored and so can your bank account!