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
