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How to navigate financial conversations with your partner as newlyweds

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After the wedding and honeymoon bliss wears off, it’s time to get back to reality.

Money is a topic that requires discussion between you and your partner, hopefully before nuptials take place. Finances can be a huge point of contention between couples, so it’s important to establish a plan early on about how you both, as a married couple, are going to deal with money. 

Money is also often an awkward topic between partners, but it’s vital to be honest with each other through financial conversations. After all, 44% of couples argue at least occasionally about money, according to Bankrate.

Below are tips to follow as newlyweds to help you navigate through the sticky situation of finances. 

Couple personal finance

Discussing finances is a difficult, but important conversation to have with your spouse. (  / iStock)

WHEN SHOULD I START SAVING FOR MY WEDDING?

  1. Put the discussion of money out there
  2. Determine your long-term and short-term financial goals
  3. Figure out how you are going to save as a couple
  4. Create a budget
  5. Adjust finances when necessary

1. Put the discussion of money out there 

When you sit down with your partner to talk about finances, put it all out there. Be 100% honest with each other, so there aren’t any surprises down the line. 

One important topic is debt. This includes everything from personal loans, credit card debt and student loans. Figure out how much you both have and come up with a plan on how you will pay it off. 

Also, talk about your spending and saving habits. What do you spend a lot of money on? Do you consider yourself a spender or a saver? How much money have you already saved? Do you have a retirement plan in place?

2. Determine your long-term and short-term financial goals 

Establish the goals that you have together, short- and long-term. 

If you have outstanding debt, one goal is probably going to be to get that paid off as soon as possible. Maybe you want to save for a down payment for a house. Do you have an emergency fund set up yet? If not, maybe one of your first goals is to get that funded. 

You can also talk about short-term money goals. This includes things like saving for a vacation or maybe a new vehicle. 

WHAT IS FINANCIAL INFIDELITY IN A MARRIAGE?

woman shopping

When talking about finances with your spouse, be open and transparent about things like debt and your own personal spending habits. (  / iStock)

3. Figure out how you are going to save as a couple

There are three different ways you can handle finances together. The first is doing everything jointly. The second is keeping your finances completely separate and the third is a combination of both.

Today, 43% of U.S. couples who are married, in a civil partnership or live together have only joint accounts, according to Bankrate. 

Thirty-four percent of couples have a mix of joint and separate accounts, according to the source, and 23% have completely separate accounts. 

PUTTING YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MARRIAGE IS: THE BEST FINANCIAL PRACTICES TO ENRICH YOUR RELATIONSHIP

The stats do show that keeping money separate as a couple is an idea posed by younger generations, with 69% of millennials keeping separate accounts, according to Bankrate.

How you and your spouse plan to handle your finances is a personal decision. Some, like Dave Ramsey, for example, believe that when a couple is married, their money should get married too, and all income should go into the same pot.

Others would rather keep things separate, although this does pose difficulty when bills and children come into play. 

Certain couples find value in a combination of both ideas.

For most couples, individuals won’t have the same debts and income, which can quickly create financial imbalance and hostility towards one another. 

That is why it’s so important to talk through all of these options with your partner, and determine what is best for you during the stage of your life that you’re in. Remember, you aren’t stuck to one way of doing things forever. If the method you choose isn’t working, you can always change things. 

That said, lumping everything together still remains the most popular option. 

SAVE MORE MONEY: 10 CLEVER WAYS TO CUT SPENDING ON UNNECESSARY ITEMS 

4. Create a budget 

Creating a budget is a great way to keep you on track with your goals and see spending habits clearly.

Whether you’ve made a budget before or not, creating one with your partner for the first time is a new experience. Even if you’ve made one as a single individual for years, it’s going to look different now that you’re married. 

When creating a budget, key things to consider are your combined income, expenses and saving plans.

laptop-computer-table

Revisit your budget monthly to make sure you are on track with your goals and to make any necessary adjustments. (  / iStock)

Once you know your combined income, list out all of your expenses, including bills as well as debts that you need to pay.

Then, don’t forget to also include how much you want to save from month to month. A popular budgeting method for couples and individuals is the 50/30/20 rule, where 50% of money goes toward needs, 30% toward wants and 20% to savings. 

5. Adjust finances when necessary

An initial money conversation is great, but it should not be the only one you have. Check in with each other on a monthly or bimonthly basis to ensure changes are made and points are heard. 

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Make any adjustments you need to make in order to maintain a healthy relationship with your significant other and your finances. 

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Tariffs may raise much less than White House projects, economists say

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President Donald Trump speaks before signing executive orders in the Oval Office on March 6, 2025.

Alex Wong | Getty Images

President Donald Trump says that tariffs will make the U.S. “rich.” But those riches will likely be far less than the White House expects, economists said.

The ultimate sum could have big ramifications for the U.S. economy, the nation’s debt and legislative negotiations over a tax-cut package, economists said.

White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Sunday estimated tariffs would raise about $600 billion a year and $6 trillion over a decade. Auto tariffs would add another $100 billion a year, he said on “Fox News Sunday.”

Navarro made the projection as the U.S. plans to announce more tariffs against U.S. trading partners on Wednesday.

Economists expect the Trump administration’s tariff policy would generate a much lower amount of revenue than Navarro claims. Some project the total revenue would be less than half.

Roughly $600 billion to $700 billion a year “is not even in the realm of possibility,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s. “If you get to $100 billion to $200 billion, you’ll be pretty lucky.”

The White House declined to respond to a request for comment from CNBC about tariff revenue.

The ‘mental math’ behind tariff revenue

There are big question marks over the scope of the tariffs, including details like amount, duration, and products and countries affected — all of which have a significant bearing on the revenue total.

The White House is considering a 20% tariff on most imports, The Washington Post reported on Tuesday. President Trump floated this idea on the campaign trail. The Trump administration may ultimately opt for a different policy, like country-by-country tariffs based on each nation’s respective trade and non-trade barriers.

But a 20% tariff rate seems to align with Navarro’s revenue projections, economists said.

The U.S. imported about $3.3 trillion of goods in 2024. Applying a 20% tariff rate to all these imports would yield about $660 billion of annual revenue.

“That is almost certainly the mental math Peter Navarro is doing — and that mental math skips some crucial steps,” said Ernie Tedeschi, director of economics at the Yale Budget Lab and former chief economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers during the Biden administration.

Trade advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump Peter Navarro speaks to press outside of the White House on March 12, 2025 in Washington, DC. 

Kayla Bartkowski | Getty Images

That’s because an accurate revenue estimate must account for the many economic impacts of tariffs in the U.S. and around the world, economists said. Those effects combine to reduce revenue, they said.

A 20% broad tariff would raise about $250 billion a year (or $2.5 trillion over a decade) when taking those effects into account, according to Tedeschi, citing a Yale Budget Lab analysis published Monday.  

There are ways to raise larger sums — but they would involve higher tariff rates, economists said. For example, a 50% across-the-board tariff would raise about $780 billion per year, according to economists at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Even that is an optimistic assessment: It doesn’t account for lower U.S. economic growth due to retaliation or the negative growth effects from the tariffs themselves, they wrote.

Why revenue would be lower than expected

Tariffs generally raise prices for consumers. A 20% broad tariff would cost the average consumer $3,400 to $4,200 a year, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

Consumers would naturally buy fewer imported goods if they cost more, economists said. Lower demand means fewer imports and less tariff revenue from those imports, they said.

Tariffs are also expected to trigger “reduced economic activity,” said Robert McClelland, senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

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For example, U.S. companies that don’t pass tariff costs on to consumers via higher prices would likely see profits suffer (and their income taxes fall), economists said. Consumers might pull back on spending, further denting company profits and tax revenues, economists said. Companies that take a financial hit might lay off workers, they said.

Foreign nations are also expected to retaliate with their own tariffs on U.S. products, which would hurt companies that export products abroad. Other nations may experience an economic downturn, further reducing demand for U.S. products.

Tariffs could be a major rewiring of the domestic and global economy, says Mohamed El-Erian

“If you get a 20% tariff rate, you’re going to get a rip-roaring recession, and that will undermine your fiscal situation,” Zandi said.

There’s also likely to be a certain level of non-compliance with tariff policy, and carve-outs for certain countries, industries or products, economists said. For instance, when the White House levied tariffs on China in February, it indefinitely exempted “de minimis” imports valued at $800 or less.

The Trump administration might also funnel some tariff revenue to paying certain parties aggrieved by a trade war, economists said.

President Trump did that in his first term: The government sent $61 billion in “relief” payments to American farmers who faced retaliatory tariffs, which was nearly all (92%) of the tariff revenue on Chinese goods from 2018 to 2020, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.

The tariffs will also likely have a short life span, diluting their potential revenue impact, economists said. They’re being issued by executive order and could be undone easily, whether by President Trump or a future president, they said.

“There’s zero probability these tariffs will last for 10 years,” Zandi said. “If they last until next year I’d be very surprised.”

Why this matters

The Trump administration has signaled that tariffs “will be one of the top-tier ways they’ll try to offset the cost” of passing a package of tax cuts, Tedeschi said.

Extending a 2017 tax cut law signed by President Trump would cost $4.5 trillion over a decade, according to the Tax Foundation. Trump has also called for other tax breaks like no taxes on tips, overtime pay or Social Security benefits, and a tax deduction for auto loan interest for American made cars.

If tariffs don’t cover the full cost of such a package, then Republican lawmakers would have to find cuts elsewhere or increase the nation’s debt, economists said.

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Investors hope April 2 could bring some tariff clarity and relief. That may not happen

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Cliff Asness’s AQR multi-strategy hedge fund returns 9% in the first quarter during tough conditions

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Cliff Asness.

Chris Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Images

AQR Capital Management’s multistrategy hedge fund beat the market with a 9% rally in the first quarter as Wall Street grappled with extreme volatility amid President Donald Trump’s uncertain tariff policy.

The Apex strategy from Cliff Asness’ firm, which combines stocks, macro and arbitrage trades and has $3 billion in assets under management, gained 3.4% in March, boosting its first-quarter performance, according to a person familiar with AQR’s returns who asked to be anonymous as the information is private.

AQR’s Delphi Long-Short Equity Strategy gained 9.7% in the first quarter, while its alternative trend-following offering Helix returned 3%, the person said.

AQR, whose assets under management reached $128 billion at the end of March, declined to comment.

The stock market just wrapped up a tumultuous quarter as Trump’s aggressive tariffs raised concerns about an severe economic slowdown and a re-acceleration of inflation. The S&P 500 dipped into correction territory in March after hitting a record in February.

For the quarter, the equity benchmark was down 4.6%, snapping a five-quarter win streak. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite lost 10.4% in the quarter, which would mark its biggest quarterly pullback since a 22.4% plunge in the second quarter of 2022.

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