Posting Our Monthly Budget: Better Conversations Podcast with Derek and Carrie Olsen. Ep. 003

Summary: I feel financially naked! It feels good, it feels right. We posted our monthly budget. (Tweet this) If you shared your budget with another couple, the facts of your situation won't change. What will change is the way you feel about your budget, which could lead to deeper conversations about how you are managing your money. Do you have a financial accountability couple? How would sharing your budget (with someone you trust) change how you approach managing your money? Talking about money with an accountability couple might bring up ideas that you had not thought of. Claiming to already have all the good ideas will leave you with only your ideas to work with. Newsflash: Other people have good ideas too. Sharing your budget with another couple is a two way street. Chances are extremely high that, not only will you learn something and feel better, the couple you share with will too. It has also been said that the best way to learn something for yourself is to teach it to someone else. Newsflash #2: Other people could learn from you. We thought and prayed about posting our budget online for over a year. We were very nervous about posting our budget at first, but we are so glad we did. The feedback has been incredible. Thank you for all the positive encouragement! You have inspired us and we hope to continue to inspire others. (Read this explanation on why we decided to start posting our budget.) Most people keep their financial information private. Is this helping? If times are tough or everything is splendid, keeping it private won't allow you to be encouraged or to be an encourager. I believe if we were more transparent about money the financial intelligence of the entire population would increase. An increase in financial intelligence would reduce the amount of mistakes, stress, and learning the hard way. We could drastically reduce the personal finance learning curve by sharing what we know withe each other. More important than how much money you earn or have is what you do with it. Sharing your budget isn't a game of comparisons, it's a chance to be transparent, learn, teach, and move forward. Who would you share your budget with if you chose an accountability couple? Entertaining and thought provoking conversations on money and marriage in less than 20 minutes. If you enjoy what you hear, we would love to hear from you. Leave your review on our iTunes page and we will read it on an upcoming episode. Check out this article I wrote for my buddy Dustin Richmann at Engaged Marriage. "A conversation about money doesn’t have to include all the details in order to be incredibly helpful. A casual conversation about your current financial situation will be infinitely more helpful than no conversation at all. You don’t have to share specific numbers in order for the conversation to be helpful. Simply talking about your experience, your current circumstances, and your financial goals can be enough to make the time well worth it. Take it slow if that is more comfortable for you." We aren't the only crazy people who post our budget. These crazy, er, awesome people posted their budget too!  Introductionist: Cliff Ravenscraft (Carrie and I learned how to podcast from Cliff.) Thanks Cliff! "I am a firm believer that if you Pursue Your Passion, The Money Will Follow!" -Cliff Ravescraft