The first year of marriage can be a blissful period, but it can also be a stressful one as you both try to figure out how to work well as a couple, and hit all those couple goals. It’s however possible as long as you are both willing to do the work and lay the important foundation down. The tips below will help you learn how to thrive during your first year of marriage both financially and emotionally.
Make Your House a Home
This may sound trivial, but it actually isn’t. If you can both go out of your way to make your house feel more like a home than some random space you find yourselves in together, you will automatically feel good when you get home after a long day. This applies both for new apartments or moving into the other’s house. Just make sure it feels warm and welcoming. This will help create a stress-free environment that will enhance better communication, which is another important thing.
Prioritize Your Relationship
Your relationship should be the most important thing when you get married. You can prioritize your relationship with your spouse by setting time aside to talk to each other face to face without interruptions from your phones and such. With many people getting married in their late 20s, some habits like endlessly scrolling down social media feeds may be a bit hard to break out of, but all is possible with commitment. Also, set date nights and keep the fun alive and create special hobbies and events just for the two of you.
Change Your Mindset and Language
When you get married, you should both change the language you speak and think from “I” to “we.” Doing so will help you become a team and when you can think of investments, debt, and savings together, you are better placed to successfully tackle challenges together. This calls for openness and transparency in all of your dealings together so even if you maintain separate accounts, it is important to have periodic check-ins together. Since about 24% of people buying homes still have student loans to pay off, it makes sense to keep all matters open and get help and support from each other.
Have Regular Money Meetings
This could be every month or so, just to make sure you’re on the same page as mentioned above. Debts, loans, and expenditures all need to be kept at reasonable levels, and one way of doing this is by having meetings during which you talk about the finances. Note that you’re exempt from federal estate taxes unless your estate is valued at $5.43 million or $10.86 million for a married couple. This should give you wiggle room to clear some debts as well as create a game plan for joint expenditures like purchasing apartments in your first year of marriage.
Good marriages take work, just like anything else out there that’s admirable. You don’t have to be millionaires to have a comfortable time, and things like renting apartments and buying houses you are happy in just take good planning. As is said time and again, make sure to keep your communication lines open. There’s plenty of advice that you can glean from happy couples around you, so take the time to.
