Walking My Talk
Sunday, June 22, 2008
My husband Les, who is a financial advisor, recently sponsored the Let’sTalk MONEY Game for his agents, their spouses, and guests, and I was fascinated to watch him play the game.
While he knows what I’ve been up to with it , since it’s all I talk about these days, he hadn’t yet participated.
So it was really intriguing to watch this very private man open up to a perfect stranger and receive the gift of her coaching, not only on the game-card questions, but also on the “life card” question I directed them to create.
I tried not to eavesdrop, but I couldn’t help noticing that he was putting himself completely into the experience - I found myself feeling enormously proud of him.
Twenty-four hours later, while hanging out on our porch, he said,”What I learned from your game last night is that you and I don’t have enough financial goals that we share. You have yours, and I have mine, and we’re great with those, but I really need us to have a big one that we focus on together.”
It made me realize that I’ve been so busy lately helping the rest of the world have better “money talks,” that I had neglected to check in on the quality of ours. Now, in addition to being very pleased by how the game had effected him, I was also humbled to have him take this bold initiative on our behalf.
The upshot of all this? We sat there and worked out a compelling savings goal, got very clear on the benefits for reaching that goal, and determined what priority this strategy would have in our lives. The conversation took some time, and was not without some give and take, but we got it done, and we both feel enormously better for it.
I love what happens when we take our own advice.
How about you? This week’s Let’sTalk MONEY question:
“What is the value in having regular “money talks?”
We’ll draw from your comments for a free Let’sTalk MONEY Game!
6 Comments
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My wife and I just did the same thing - we usually talk about our money goals monthy, but we got away from it. We just sat down a week ago and re-grouped. The value in regular money talks is you don’t take so much for granted.
I just recently attended T. Harv Eker’s 3-day Millionaire Mind Intensive Seminar. What a fantastic seminar on money! Needless to say, my husband and I have been talking non-stop about money since I came home with lots of great ideas. I am even introducing my 6 year old to what I’ve learned about money. We talk about money a lot!
Jenifer,
Congratulations! It’s amazing sometimes what we don’t see.
As I read your post I realized that my husband don’t have a joint financial goal either. We have, however, started (since Spring Fling) to communicate more openly about money so we are definitely moving forward.
A shared financial goal - We’ll have to work on that one. Thank you for sharing.
Be sure to include the kids! You know they’re probably not getting trained in school, so why not include them in your conversations at home and start building a strong foundation for when they’re faced with making money decisions on their own.
Jenifer,
I think you have touched on an important fact. Married couples get caught up in the day to day life and they do not give enough consideration to planning for the future. Perhaps couples should set up game night as well as date night. Just a thought.
Best Regards,
John
I agree, game night is a great idea! The more we can make our “money talks” interesting and fun, the more likely we are to show up for them.