Do you always listen to your spouse?

Good morning Dinks.  So you’ve said I do in front of your loved ones, or if you’re like me and my boyfriend Nick you’ve made more of a virtual commitment.  That’s just my way of saying I’ve been with my boyfriend for almost 15 years and we’re still dating.  The point of my story is you are committed to living the rest of your life with someone (even if you aren’t married) but what does that really mean? Does it mean you have to compromise?

I wouldn’t say that I compromise in our relationship, well at least not all the time, but I am the first to admit that my boyfriend can talk me into or out of anything.  He is more open minded and sees situations in different ways than I do whereas I tend to be very narrow minded.  When I have an idea in my head there’s no stopping me, until Nick sheds some light on the subject.

A second opinion for major decisions

Having a spouse who sees situations in a different way than you do and who sees other solutions to a problem is an asset.  I like that I can talk with Nick and ask his opinion before I make a major decision.  He doesn’t often give me his opinion unless he feels really strongly about it.  I take his points into consideration and then make the final decision on my own.  Sometimes I take his advice and sometimes I don’t.  Is this how it works in your house?

Rethinking your spending

They say your spouse is your better half.  If you are a spender maybe they are the voice in your head asking you to rethink your purchase before you buy something.  So let me ask you this, before you spend money do you consider your spouse?  I usually do.  Before I buy something for myself I consider our rent, our weekly groceries and everything we need for our home and then I decide if I still need the item I want to buy.  For better or worse Nick is the angel on my shoulder telling me to rethink my purchases.

I’m not going to lie.  Nick and I don’t always agree on everything.  When we were younger our biggest arguments were related to money.  Sometimes he is the voice of reason, but some other times he’s an annoying little fly buzzing in my ear and all I want to do is squash the voice.

Think about your investments

We keep our investments separate and I would love to say our investor styles complement each other but that’s not true.  I am a very conservative investor compared to Nick.  That may be a woman thing or it may just be a Kristina and Nick thing.  Either way we don’t agree on how to manage our portfolios.

The silver lining to our different styles is he encourages me to take a little more risk than I normally would – and it’s paid off.  I added 15% extremely high risk (emerging markets) into my very balanced investment portfolio and it helped increase my overall rate of return.

So what’s the moral of my story?  Even though you and your spouse may not agree on everything it’s OK.  I may not always agree with Nicks opinion but at the end of the day I’m thankful for it.

Photo from Flickr

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.