Most of the problems in today’s life stem from the financial decisions a husband and wife make. Life after marriage changes completely and expenses increase manifold. Most of the friction and tension among the young couples, in the modern times happen due to bad management of financial lives. A little effort towards setting their financial basics right would help them live a happier married life. After marriage, what were once individual financial goals become mutual, husband and wife share a life together and consequently education of children, vacations, medical expenses, marriage and eventual retirement are common goals which have to be planned for, together in advance. As the saying goes, “failing to plan is planning to fail”.
As it were, reviewing the financial plan is as important as creating one. A hard look at your budget and your investments would help you understand if you need to make some changes in the way you save, spend or invest. The life immediately after marriage is full of uncertainties and it is only after spending few years that couple understand the importance of smart saving and diversifying their investments. Since it is a start of a new phase the excitement is high and propensity to save and reviewing the plan is less.
Succinctly, deciding and writing down how much to spend and save would help avoid fights between the couple. Without a budget the couple would lead their financial lives as wanderers. The strategy is to stick to the budget and modify only if it is unavoidable. Equally, the couple needs to decide among them, who should manage whoever income at the end of the day to avoid running into deficit in the family.
Sometimes, women are perceived as being best managers of family income.
However, Friday magazine Correspondent went to town and sought the opinion of different people on who should manage the wife income/salary.
Mr. Patrick Nwanze, Delta Speaker’s aide said; let her manage it herself because she is a woman and has her decision to make. So a good wife should use her salary in the interest of the family, she has a right to her salary and she should manage it for the interest of the family.
Comrade Benson Okobi-Allanah a Journalist was of the opinion that the woman is a worker and she has every right to manage her income or salary, and in that wise she will be able to do certain things on behalf of the husband even when he is not around. You know, men are always on the move, so she should be managing her salary and she will now have full autonomy as per control of her finance, she will not be depending on you all the time for you to act. But when she is given a free hand for her to manage her income or salary, when the man is not around, she can always manage the affairs of the house without relying on the husband. So it is good she is allowed to manage her income or salary.
Mr. Vincent Aniekwushie a Civil Servant opined; I believe it should be the wife that would manage her income or salary because they have a retaining venture, they can team up and carry the family to greater heights. But the wife should manage her salary.
Mrs. Eucharia Nzeabi a Teacher, said that it is the woman’s right to manage her salary, should the husband not around, she will be able to sustain the family. And in terms of financial need, it is not everything that she would require the husband to do for her, in case the family runs short of food items in the house, the woman being in custody of money will immediately rush to the market to buy the things needed in the family without waiting for the husband to return home. So it keeps the family moving on peacefully without any hindrance.
Mrs. Comfort Life an Asaba- based Publisher said; I think it is the husband, but not totally anyway. I think they should work together and I think women are better managers of finances. It is a very dicey one; as a young bride when I was newly married, I wanted my husband and I to have a joint account, but somehow, his family did not like the idea. They said that because he was earning very high but I was just a small worker that time, with a newspaper publishing house, but
eventually, looking back now, it was a good decision because women are better managers of money than men, so I think it should be a joint thing.
Mr. Omon-Julius Onabu a Journalist explained; you know that issue of money is very important to the family, so unless you want to deceive yourself, money actually promotes understanding because so many problems will be solved within the family. And there are so many problems to be solved; challenges especially in today’s world but the issue is that, when it comes to managing money, I think a woman should handle her pay package with the husband based on the understanding they have. There are some men who will just give their pay package to their wives because they believe that if they are to manage it for the family upkeep, they believe the woman manages better, so they will just give their wives custody of the house to manage so that she can manage well. But it should not be by force, the place the man decides to keep the woman’s purse, there must be a kind of understanding otherwise, there is no justification for it. This is because if the woman has her own responsibilities, how will she give her purse to the husband? But if it is like a common purse that the two of them decided to put together their financial resources and then to also draw a kind of budget on how to spend the money, it is okay. But when a wife is seen as the type with extravagant lifestyle, the man should keep the purse for the betterment of the family.
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