EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

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BattyNatty
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EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by BattyNatty »

I handle the bulk of the personal financial management load and every year I write up an End of Year Report for my spouse. We then go through it discussing each section, answering questions, making future plans, etc. I also attach a copy of the report to the end of the "In Case of Death" file I keep with all our financial info/plans for if I'm suddenly not around to execute on all of it. [edit since some replies are very focused on the Death document: this EOY Report is a separate document to review and discuss annually, not a death document!]

Right now, the EOY document covers:
  • Spending vs. Budget by Category for prior year
  • Budget by Category for next year
  • Two-Income Trap Evaluation (see if/how we'd survive on just the lower of our two salaries)
  • Charts showing how our income and spending has changed over time
  • Earnings summary
  • Mortgage status
  • Net worth status
  • Charts showing how our net worth has changed over time, broken out by account type
  • Retirement projections
Is there anything else I could include in the EOY Report to ensure it is as holistic as possible? Anything else you make sure to discuss with your spouse about your finances?
Last edited by BattyNatty on Mon Jan 13, 2025 7:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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rob
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by rob »

Just be sure to include a preface or something that says you do NOT have to do almost anything right away. It's sure to be an overwhelming situation (I don't know personally, so take that as it is), so all the details below make it seem urgent.

I'm redoing my what if I wake up dead letter to spouse and am thinking about this topic. No answers as yet, so bookmarking.
| Rob | Its a dangerous business going out your front door. - J.R.R.Tolkien
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cheese_breath
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by cheese_breath »

Insurances
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kd2008
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by kd2008 »

I go through something similar with DH in December. It is a single slide with two tables.

But with much less detail than you. You will have rely on what your spouse needs and would like to know.

The only numbers I share:
Table 1
Gross income (wages, dividends, matching contributions, variable pay summed up as a single number)
Total taxes (FICA, Fed, state summed up as a single number)
Total savings (summed up as a single number)
Total spending (single number obtained from subtraction of income - taxes - savings)

I include 3 columns: previous year, current year, and estimate for next year. I include one-off expenses in spending.

I also include previous year and current year invested assets.
Start of year total, contributions, gain/loss for the year, end of year total. This is Table 2.

Don't be exact. Round out numbers to nearest 500 or 1000. Definitely do not include decimals.

This system works for us. What works for you and your spouse may be different.

I initially thought about doing this in January like you, but DH said no. Mid December is a good time to sum up the year. Doing it in January felt like looking back and hence "diminutive"
Last edited by kd2008 on Mon Jan 13, 2025 3:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
sailaway
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by sailaway »

We just look at our portfolio balances, AA (in order to rebalance), and last 12 months of spending.
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warner25
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by warner25 »

rob wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 2:54 pm Just be sure to include a preface or something that says you do NOT have to do almost anything right away. It's sure to be an overwhelming situation (I don't know personally, so take that as it is), so all the details below make it seem urgent.
I think it's important to distinguish between an "End of Year Report" and an "In Case of Death" file, as the OP mentioned separately.

For the former, after years of trying (and failing) to figure out how to make my spreadsheet digestible for my wife, I've boiled it down to a colorful infographic with fun emojis and very few lines of big, bold text. I found that when I tried to present more detailed stuff, I did so poorly, and it led to confusion, frustration, "missing the forest for the trees," etc. What my infographic basically shows now is: (1) broadly how much we've been earning, spending, and saving; (2) how much we'll be able to spend on a house, college for our kids, and everything else per year in early retirement if we keep doing what we're doing until then. She has received that well, and it sets up a productive big-picture discussion about our goals and the impact of adjusting our expenses or working longer.

For the latter, I have four pages, so it's more detailed. It also points to the treasure trove with our wills, detailed spreadsheet, previous tax returns, car titles, etc. My hope is that our year-end (and other) conversations will give her enough context to make sense of things, but also that this stuff will be useful to whoever comes to her aid (e.g. her brother, best friend). I explicitly suggest working with Vanguard Personal Advisor Select and I said she could probably give a scanned copy to her assigned CFP. Here's a redacted version of what I wrote on the first two pages...

You’re entitled to the following things from <employer>. The amounts for most of these items are shown on the two-page report that I generated from <employer website> and attached.
• <benefit 1>
• <benefit 2>
• <benefit 3>

Apply for Social Security (SS) Survivors Benefits (which is different from the <employer-provided survivor benefit>).

Notify <list of financial institutions> of my death. Request a lump sum payment of the life insurance benefits. Use Vanguard Personal Advisor Select to help move most of the assets to Vanguard (for simplicity) and organize things. They will charge an annual fee, but it’s reasonable. If you ever want another opinion on something, ask the bogleheads.org forum. At this point, you should control $X,000,000 in assets (also shown at the end of the attached report):
• $X,000,000 in prior savings at <list of institutions>
• $X00,000 from <life insurance policy 1>
• $X00,000 from <life insurance policy 2>

With the income benefits and assets, you should never need to do paid work again. For some perspective, our total spending has been about $X00,000 per year. Your income will be more than that until the kids turn 18 (it drops as the kids turn 18, and then rises again when you turn 60, because of SS, which you can see on the attached report). The $X,000,000 in assets is on top of that income. You could very comfortably buy a home for $X00,000 with cash and then spend $X00,000 per year (increasing every year with inflation) on everything else.

In addition to the 529 plan savings that can be split among you and the kids, you are each eligible for <employer-provided education benefits> as shown on the report.

<CURRENT FLOW OF INCOME AND SPENDING to describe mechanics of direct deposit, automatic investments, and automatic bill pay that I've set up>

<HELPFUL USERNAMES AND PASSWORDS for things like our utilities, household electronics, cloud storage accounts, and a reminder that she has her own usernames and passwords for the financial institutions where we have joint accounts>
Swee'pea
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by Swee'pea »

I do the same. Here are a couple of ideas I didn't see mentioned.

Since we are retired, I list our income streams for the next year, including source, frequency and how withholding is set-up.

Our net worth spreadsheet generates a simple table showing a snap shot of our overall asset allocation as well as the asset allocation by tax category. I rarely need to re-balance but it is reassuring to see the current breakdown beside our stated AA goals.

I use our EOY information to create a list of financial and investment tasks during the upcoming year. Although I generally do these myself, this is a chance to discuss what and how and why.

Thanks for your post and I'll be reading the replies for more inspiration.
KeepingEyesOpen
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by KeepingEyesOpen »

Paying bills: How each bill is paid - on autopay? Directly from bank account through payment portal? Through bank BillPay? Credit card? URLs and passwords for payment portals, plus 2FA (two-factor authentication) info.

How do bill notices or invoices arrive? US Mail? email? Which email account and password for account.

Subscriptions? On autopay? TV streaming, computer, phone apps, other subscriptions.

How are taxes paid? Quarterly estimated taxes?

How and when are bank account deposits and transfers made?

Ensure that primary bill-paying account is joint account so that it will be accessible after death of one spouse.
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BattyNatty
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by BattyNatty »

I edited the OP to help clarify I'm interested in thoughts for the EOY Report, not the In Case of Death document.
Swee'pea wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 7:01 pm Our net worth spreadsheet generates a simple table showing a snap shot of our overall asset allocation as well as the asset allocation by tax category. I rarely need to re-balance but it is reassuring to see the current breakdown beside our stated AA goals.

I use our EOY information to create a list of financial and investment tasks during the upcoming year. Although I generally do these myself, this is a chance to discuss what and how and why.
Asset allocation would be good to add to the report/discussion–thank you!
warner25 wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 6:21 pm For the former, after years of trying (and failing) to figure out how to make my spreadsheet digestible for my wife, I've boiled it down to a colorful infographic with fun emojis and very few lines of big, bold text. I found that when I tried to present more detailed stuff, I did so poorly, and it led to confusion, frustration, "missing the forest for the trees," etc. What my infographic basically shows now is: (1) broadly how much we've been earning, spending, and saving; (2) how much we'll be able to spend on a house, college for our kids, and everything else per year in early retirement if we keep doing what we're doing until then. She has received that well, and it sets up a productive big-picture discussion about our goals and the impact of adjusting our expenses or working longer.
Interesting approach - thank you!
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simplesimon
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by simplesimon »

warner25 wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 6:21 pm For the former, after years of trying (and failing) to figure out how to make my spreadsheet digestible for my wife, I've boiled it down to a colorful infographic with fun emojis and very few lines of big, bold text. I found that when I tried to present more detailed stuff, I did so poorly, and it led to confusion, frustration, "missing the forest for the trees," etc. What my infographic basically shows now is: (1) broadly how much we've been earning, spending, and saving; (2) how much we'll be able to spend on a house, college for our kids, and everything else per year in early retirement if we keep doing what we're doing until then. She has received that well, and it sets up a productive big-picture discussion about our goals and the impact of adjusting our expenses or working longer.
I do something similar with keeping things big picture. While I would certainly be interested in the EOY report that OP outlined, my spouse would not.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by jebmke »

My spouse has full access to account details so I keep our annual snapshot very simple; it used to be more complicated but I realize it was information that was unrelated to actions so I killed off a lot of detail.

What we have (equity, fixed, total).

What is our total income (all sources)

What is our total spending -- total dollars that went out the door never to return again, no matter what it was for.

It is a quick meeting, shrugs on both sides.
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warner25
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by warner25 »

simplesimon wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 8:40 am...While I would certainly be interested in the EOY report that OP outlined, my spouse would not.
Yeah, my wife would laugh at me or just say, "no, I can't" if I rolled out the OP's report and tried to show her.

To be clear, she's very smart; we met in college, her GPA beat mine, and we took the same personal finance elective course there. But during the day she's mobbed by our kids, and after we put them to bed at night she's wiped out. She's also just not that interested in this stuff to begin with whereas I've spent the last 15+ years reading on-topic material and tinkering with our spreadsheet for fun. I eventually realized that when I presented more details, my assumptions, terminology, shorthand, etc. were confusing to her because of the lack of context. So she'd ask questions and then my answers would stumble into even more of the same problems.

The questions I got this year were:
[In reference to apparently spending a bit less in 2023-2024 than we did in 2022] "So that's good, right?"
[Pointing to the dip in our net worth in 2022] "What happened there? The stock market crashed?"
[Regarding what we can spend on college for the kids] "Is that per kid, or for all of them combined?"

I tried to keep my answers as short and direct as possible, fighting the urge to get into all the baked-in assumptions and caveats and theory.

Then she patiently listened to me as I tried to highlight the bottom line: that if we keep doing what we're doing, we can FIRE in 2031 with the spending power shown, or that one or both of us can work a bit longer if we want to spend more in some area, and that's what we need to keep thinking about over the next few years.
SevenBridgesRoad
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SevenBridgesRoad »

warner25 wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 10:06 am
simplesimon wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 8:40 am...While I would certainly be interested in the EOY report that OP outlined, my spouse would not.
Yeah, my wife would laugh at me or just say, "no, I can't" if I rolled out the OP's report and tried to show her.
.......
My wife's reaction would be similiar. Or worse...I might not survive.

But isn't it true that adults resist being coerced into reading/listening to/doing something they really don't want to do? Even if we think it's important?

I can't imagine issuing an EOY Report to my wife. Yikes. What's next, an Annual Personal Performance Review? Honey, here's some of the areas where you could use some improvement this next year. Now, write out your top five goals and we'll get back together in a few months to review.

But I get it. We want so badly to share important financial information. In addition to the Death Book we all meticulously keep.

It may not work for everyone, but here's what seems to be best for us: I share that information in dribs and drabs. A few days ago for example I very casually mentioned (without anything written) that last year we made about $XXXX a month in dividends and interest. I had just reviewed EOY statements statements myself. That one comment generated some excellent discussion for a few minutes.

Other examples: Occasionally she's read something about "the stock market went down yesterday". She'll mention that. It opens a brief discussion about our portfolio and asset allocation. Brief, doesn't feel like a lecture. Oral bullet points. Back and forth for a few minutes and onto the next thing. Also, I find opportunities during tax time to introduce a few bits of important information. And then end-of-month: not every month, but every few I'll very briefly point to the VPW Retirement form I've updated. That one sheet of paper has almost everything she needs to know actually. Takes two minutes. And so it goes.
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warner25
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by warner25 »

SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:10 am But isn't it true that adults resist being coerced into reading/listening to/doing something they really don't want to do?
True, I think that giving books to other people (other than books that people have explicitly asked for, and even those might never actually get read) must be the least effective way to spread ideas and information. I laugh when people on this forum ask for a recommended title to give their kids, nieces and nephews, grand kids, etc. I'm more often on the receiving end of short-form videos, and even those I'll often ignore because I'm not really interested and don't want to stop whatever I'm doing and invest 15 seconds in watching them.
SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:10 am But I get it. We want so badly to share important financial information. In addition to the Death Book we all meticulously keep.
My wife seems to have her own internal tension about this. She'll periodically hear the story of some woman who's been abused or widowed and didn't have access to or know anything about their finances, and she'll briefly feel panicked that she doesn't have or know what she'd need either. But that only sparks so much motivation. I guess I can relate to suddenly thinking that I should know more about some topic, and then immediately feeling overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff that I find filled with unfamiliar terminology, notation, references to other things that I don't know about, etc. Not knowing where to start to put things into context.
SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:10 am It may not work for everyone, but here's what seems to be best for us: I share that information in dribs and drabs... very casually mentioned (without anything written)... one comment generated some excellent discussion for a few minutes.
I think this is very good. Also when my wife will hear something about markets or someone else's personal finance or investment practices, and she'll mention it to me. I get excited about using little openings like that, but I've also learned that I can easily blow them by getting too excited. This reminds me of something that nisiprius has mentioned a few times (paraphrasing because I can't find a quote right now), that he found it most effective to teach his kids things by casually narrating whatever he was doing (e.g. when driving) or thinking (e.g. about finances) when they were in his presence.
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WoodSpinner
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by WoodSpinner »

OP,

I do something similar but have a slightly different focus….

First part of document is designed to tee-up a discussion with my wife on the most important items from her perspective. Goal is to have a meaningful discussion rather than reviewing a bunch of spreadsheets and charts.
  • Summary (e.g. Are we on track? Based on our prioritized goals)
  • Key Metrics (Funded Ratio, Reserve Size etc.)
  • Proposed Changes for 2025 (larger planned expenses, trips, gifting, charitable donations)
  • Changes implemented in 2024 (What we did vs. what we planned)
  • Income, Expenses & Taxes​ (for previous and next year)
  • Estate Plan​ (Snapshot of who gets what and how much if either passed away today)
  • Her Portfolio (She is much more interested in her funds since they will go to our daughter and aren’t part of our Retirement Spending plans).
The next section is mainly for my reference we rarely need to review this information together. OTOH, it is something I review with our Financial Advisor to gain additional perspective.
  • Secure Income​
  • Yearly Expenses​
  • Taxes​
  • Retirement Portfolio
  • Asset Allocation​5
  • Year End 2024 – Joel’s Assets​
  • Year End 2024 - Low Risk and Growth Portfolios​
  • Portfolio Positioning
  • Charts and Graphs
    • Portfolio Tax Diversification
    • Expected Income​
    • Expected Withdrawal Rate​
    • Spending Approach Comparison​
    • Additional Spending Capability
  • Key Assumptions
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CloseEnough
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by CloseEnough »

Is the EOY Report audited?
Jayhawk11
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by Jayhawk11 »

I do an EOY report for my DW as well. Feel like it is necessary because she makes 5 times what I do and has me manage it without supervision (she could care less).

Mine goes:

1. Most adorable picture of our kids from that year;
2. Executive Summary (where are we net worth wise compared to 1- 5- 10- years ago, main drivers of that, 1 or 2 main messages I'd like to convey).
3. Goal review/setting. We review how we did last year (did we fund the 529s like we said we would?), and I propose new/altered goals for the new year for discussion. Most years have between 3-6 goals.
4. Section w/ our net-worth spelled out in detail (i.e., line items for investment accounts, home equity)
5. Section w/ spending by categories with charts.
6. Analysis of our retirement trajectory
7. Two pages of what to do if I die that year (all the accounts, approximate balances where they are, recurring payments, some suggestions on what I'd with my life insurance proceeds lol).

Sections 1, 2, 3, and 7 are for her, sections 4, 5, and 6 are for me essentially. But, it helps us have a once-a-year convo on goals and our standing in the world, and helps re-enforce my Boglehead beliefs (look how good it's going by paying ourselves first and living within our means????).

Highly recommend it to couples, especially mis-matched (or are we perfectly matched?) spender/saver relationships.
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circlespinner
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by circlespinner »

I use a password manager as a repository for all of my access credentials. Our Survivor Plan includes instructions on how to use the password manager. My wife is not tech savvy. I made sure she could login to a few web sites using credentials stored in the password manager using the instructions from the plan.

The credentials for the password manager and electronic version of the survivor plan are included in a sealed envelope stored along with the survivor plan document. Our son also has a copy of the plan.

Don't forget to include passwords for devices like computers and phones.
circlespinner
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by circlespinner »

I use a password manager as a repository for all of my access credentials. Our Survivor Plan includes instructions on how to use the password manager. My wife is not tech savvy. I made sure she could login to a few web sites using credentials stored in the password manager using the instructions from the plan.

The credentials for the password manager and electronic version of the survivor plan are included in a sealed envelope stored along with the survivor plan document. Our son also has a copy of the plan.

Don't forget to include passwords for devices like computers and phones.
tibbitts
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by tibbitts »

BattyNatty wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 2:45 pm I handle the bulk of the personal financial management load and every year I write up an End of Year Report for my spouse.
That's fine as long as you understand this is just something you do because you enjoy it, not because it's going to benefit anyone else, including your spouse.

Somehow this got sidetracked to a discussion of the "death document" you also mentioned, which is completely different and very important.
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BattyNatty
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by BattyNatty »

Jayhawk11 wrote: Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:59 pm I do an EOY report for my DW as well. Feel like it is necessary because she makes 5 times what I do and has me manage it without supervision (she could care less).

Mine goes:

1. Most adorable picture of our kids from that year;
2. Executive Summary (where are we net worth wise compared to 1- 5- 10- years ago, main drivers of that, 1 or 2 main messages I'd like to convey).
3. Goal review/setting. We review how we did last year (did we fund the 529s like we said we would?), and I propose new/altered goals for the new year for discussion. Most years have between 3-6 goals.
4. Section w/ our net-worth spelled out in detail (i.e., line items for investment accounts, home equity)
5. Section w/ spending by categories with charts.
6. Analysis of our retirement trajectory
7. Two pages of what to do if I die that year (all the accounts, approximate balances where they are, recurring payments, some suggestions on what I'd with my life insurance proceeds lol).

Sections 1, 2, 3, and 7 are for her, sections 4, 5, and 6 are for me essentially. But, it helps us have a once-a-year convo on goals and our standing in the world, and helps re-enforce my Boglehead beliefs (look how good it's going by paying ourselves first and living within our means????).

Highly recommend it to couples, especially mis-matched (or are we perfectly matched?) spender/saver relationships.
Thanks! I like the idea of explicit goal setting and review.
WeakOldGuy
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by WeakOldGuy »

BattyNatty wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 2:45 pm I handle the bulk of the personal financial management load and every year I write up an End of Year Report for my spouse.

Right now, the EOY document covers:
  • Spending vs. Budget by Category for prior year
  • Budget by Category for next year
  • Two-Income Trap Evaluation (see if/how we'd survive on just the lower of our two salaries)
  • Charts showing how our income and spending has changed over time
  • Earnings summary
  • Mortgage status
  • Net worth status
  • Charts showing how our net worth has changed over time, broken out by account type
  • Retirement projections
I think this is a really good idea and one that I think I should steal. My wife has absolutely no interest/understanding of finances other than wanting to know if we have "enough". I should develop something similar. However, it would need to be a single page with simple graphics.
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SnowBog
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SnowBog »

BattyNatty wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 2:45 pm Right now, the EOY document covers:
  • Spending vs. Budget by Category for prior year
  • Budget by Category for next year
  • Two-Income Trap Evaluation (see if/how we'd survive on just the lower of our two salaries)
  • Charts showing how our income and spending has changed over time
  • Earnings summary
  • Mortgage status
  • Net worth status
  • Charts showing how our net worth has changed over time, broken out by account type
  • Retirement projections
Is there anything else I could include in the EOY Report to ensure it is as holistic as possible? Anything else you make sure to discuss with your spouse about your finances?
I do something similar. These are some of the things in ours, I didn't see listed in yours:
  • Simple one-page summary that shows budget vs. plan vs. prior period across spending and savings, with a small "wall chart" (idea from Your Money or Your Life), and FI estimates for various scenarios ("budget", "actuals", "retire early") of note, I create this monthly and we've previously reviewed monthly
  • Summary page from Longinvest's Returns Spreadsheet for Bogleheads (shows time-weighted returns, my modified version adds a "savings" vs. "gains" to the annual table so we can see how our savings have kept up annually, and see the impact of gains [which we obviously can't control])
  • My own "historical" sheet showing portfolio value by account type (pre-tax, Roth, etc.) each year since I started it)
  • Full page Wall Chart (again from Your Money or Your Life), helps visualize our spending vs. "budget" (where we above/below budget) vs. a SWR estimate, with the idea being when the SWR estimate is higher than expenses you can retire
  • Various reports, graphs, etc. from Monarch showing cash flow, top expenses, usually additional details on budget items that weren't close
  • Based on the above "recommendations" to budget changes (this one is too high we need to reign it in, this one needs more budget as costs are going up, this one we'd like to put more into, etc.). As part of our annual review, we'll discuss and agree on the budget going forward (if noteworthy, we use large budget buckets - like food, healthcare, etc.; but we don't really care too much about the buckets (except as a comparison/measuring stick), it's more about keeping the monthly expenses within the total budget - at least that's the goal...)
  • Summary page from my own Retirement Estimate, showing similar outputs as Fidelity's version
  • Fidelity's Retirement Estimate as a comparison (luckily they are directionally aligned)
  • Similar from Firecalc (obviously our inputs could be flawed, but find comfort when 3 different models all basically say the same thing)
  • Summary page(s) showing year end portfolio (both in shares and value and where the money is)
  • Estimated taxes for the prior year (owed in April) via my own tax estimates which I use to calculate and pay quarterly taxes, once we have all tax forms, I'll use TurboTax for the final number, which is usually directionally close)
  • Final page is Variable Percentage Withdrawal (VPW) Retirement Worksheet. Currently, this just shows the hypothetical "withdrawal" we could make it we were retired this year. My hope is I'll get them to "own" this worksheet over the coming years. If I'm gone and they are retired, they basically just need to update our portfolio size (the rest like age is done for them as a formula), and then withdraw and spend (including taxes) less than that amount for the coming year. No such luck yet, but I'm hoping when we retire, and it's "more real" to them, they might be more inclined...
P.S. I keep a copy of this in The Big Book of Everything, which I highly recommend https://www.erikdewey.com/bigbook.htm, I keep a paper copy in a 3-ring binder in plastic sleeves with tabs/folders for additional relevant things like our year-end summary, wills/trusts/PoA, etc. I also have a separate "death document" stored there with more explicit financial details like here's how to contact my employer for benefits, social security with input on claiming recommendations, forms to takeover my accounts, information on life insurance, contacts/recommendations on where to get assistance (here on BH, from Planvision [who I pay for this reason], if they need more help suggest they look at Vanguard PAS). I keep this all easy to find - while a lot of info, they are aware and at least know where to look
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SevenBridgesRoad »

WeakOldGuy wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:59 pm .............My wife has absolutely no interest/understanding of finances other than wanting to know if we have "enough". I should develop something similar. However, it would need to be a single page with simple graphics.
If she just wants to know if you guys have enough, why don't you just answer her question? Sounds like she might be fine with a "yes, we have enough".
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by asset_chaos »

For maybe the first eight years I made the spouse an end of year report on our financial position. As she was never too keen on going through it with me and her eyes would glaze over when I'd try to explain it----I know I'm boring with numbers but come on!---I stopped doing it. Now I just tell her around Chiristmas that we're doing fine for money, suggest how much we can spend next year on travel, and ask where she'd like to go. That discussion generates much higher engagement and interest.
Regards, | | Guy
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SevenBridgesRoad »

asset_chaos wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 1:28 am For maybe the first eight years I made the spouse an end of year report on our financial position. As she was never too keen on going through it with me and her eyes would glaze over when I'd try to explain it----I know I'm boring with numbers but come on!---I stopped doing it. Now I just tell her around Chiristmas that we're doing fine for money, suggest how much we can spend next year on travel, and ask where she'd like to go. That discussion generates much higher engagement and interest.
Excellent. This is pure wisdom.
Walkure
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by Walkure »

BattyNatty wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 2:45 pm I handle the bulk of the personal financial management load and every year I write up an End of Year Report for my spouse. We then go through it discussing each section, answering questions, making future plans, etc. I also attach a copy of the report to the end of the "In Case of Death" file I keep with all our financial info/plans for if I'm suddenly not around to execute on all of it. [edit since some replies are very focused on the Death document: this EOY Report is a separate document to review and discuss annually, not a death document!]

Right now, the EOY document covers:
  • Spending vs. Budget by Category for prior year
  • Budget by Category for next year
  • Two-Income Trap Evaluation (see if/how we'd survive on just the lower of our two salaries)
  • Charts showing how our income and spending has changed over time
  • Earnings summary
  • Mortgage status
  • Net worth status
  • Charts showing how our net worth has changed over time, broken out by account type
  • Retirement projections
Is there anything else I could include in the EOY Report to ensure it is as holistic as possible? Anything else you make sure to discuss with your spouse about your finances?
This is a good framework. Invariably I add too much and end up not finishing the report. Additional topics to consider:
Credit card rewards strategy
Fine tuning withholding
Reviewing accounts at various financial institutions for closure / consolidation
Tracking real and nominal income over time
Tracking personal inflation vs CPI
effective tax rate overtime
WeakOldGuy
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by WeakOldGuy »

SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 10:28 pm
WeakOldGuy wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:59 pm .............My wife has absolutely no interest/understanding of finances other than wanting to know if we have "enough". I should develop something similar. However, it would need to be a single page with simple graphics.
If she just wants to know if you guys have enough, why don't you just answer her question? Sounds like she might be fine with a "yes, we have enough".
Yes she does and that is enough for her. OTOH, I would prefer she increased her financial understanding in case I get hit by a bus.
On investing; I have lots of questions, many opinions, and little knowledge. A dangerous combination. Be warned.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by docL »

Much like OP, my DW leaves the financials to me. At the end of the year I share a much more condensed and simple snapshot of where we are, but I also include some conservative forward projections.

1) Mortgage - how much is left, how much we are paying, when it will be gone
2) Retirement savings - balances in various categories, how much is projected to be added to each this upcoming year, and how much it will grow to at various early retirement ages
3) Kids 529 plans - balances, how much we plan to add, how much it would grow to when they enter college if we stopped contributing

I generally use 4-5% for equity growth rate and 2-3% for bonds.

This allows her see the broad overall plan and how we are coming along. Specifically we try to guesstimate when we will want to stop contributing to 529s and just let them grow on their own. Also lets us just ballpark future early retirement plans and how close we may be getting. She isn't intuitive with math and compounding and I need to spell out the future growth to make it clear for her. For her noting a 2nd grader has $X in their 529 doesn't automatically click that it will nearly double in value by the time they are in college.
Last edited by docL on Fri Jan 31, 2025 10:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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warner25
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by warner25 »

WeakOldGuy wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:59 pm...wanting to know if we have "enough". I should develop something similar. However, it would need to be a single page with simple graphics.
See what I said earlier about boiling mine down a single "colorful infographic with fun emojis." It simply aims to convey how much we'll be able to spend in the future, if we keep doing what we're doing, vs. how much we've been spending. So it's not a "yes" or "no" answer to the question, but it sets up a discussion about whether the projected future spending is "enough" or whether we should make some kind of adjustments.
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Larix
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by Larix »

warner25 wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 6:21 pm For the former, after years of trying (and failing) to figure out how to make my spreadsheet digestible for my wife, I've boiled it down to a colorful infographic with fun emojis and very few lines of big, bold text. I found that when I tried to present more detailed stuff, I did so poorly, and it led to confusion, frustration, "missing the forest for the trees," etc. What my infographic basically shows now is: (1) broadly how much we've been earning, spending, and saving; (2) how much we'll be able to spend on a house, college for our kids, and everything else per year in early retirement if we keep doing what we're doing until then.
I love the idea of an infographic. If you're willing/able to share a redacted version or themplate of it so we can see what it looks like, I would appreciate it!
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SevenBridgesRoad »

WeakOldGuy wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 10:30 am
SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2025 10:28 pm

If she just wants to know if you guys have enough, why don't you just answer her question? Sounds like she might be fine with a "yes, we have enough".
Yes she does and that is enough for her. OTOH, I would prefer she increased her financial understanding in case I get hit by a bus.
Maybe there are other ways to achieve at least some of what you “prefer”, rather than a forced EOY document review. Adults seldom respond well to forced anything. Much of this thread seems like parent-child behavior.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by WeakOldGuy »

SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:15 am
WeakOldGuy wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 10:30 am Yes she does and that is enough for her. OTOH, I would prefer she increased her financial understanding in case I get hit by a bus.
Maybe there are other ways to achieve at least some of what to “prefer”, rather than a forced EOY document review. Adults seldom respond well to forced anything. Much of this thread seems like parent-child behavior.
I understand the concern and I think it is a good point. I think the key is to present the information in such as way that it is valuable and appreciated by the person receiving it.
On investing; I have lots of questions, many opinions, and little knowledge. A dangerous combination. Be warned.
stan1
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by stan1 »

The way I would view this is as a handover document in case you unexpectedly do get hit by a bus this year. So I would put insurance and all other accounts in this document so spouse and anyone she seeks help from have all the information in one place. That way you are reviewing the turnover information each year as well so it will be mostly current.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by sailaway »

simplesimon wrote: Tue Jan 14, 2025 8:40 am
warner25 wrote: Mon Jan 13, 2025 6:21 pm For the former, after years of trying (and failing) to figure out how to make my spreadsheet digestible for my wife, I've boiled it down to a colorful infographic with fun emojis and very few lines of big, bold text. I found that when I tried to present more detailed stuff, I did so poorly, and it led to confusion, frustration, "missing the forest for the trees," etc. What my infographic basically shows now is: (1) broadly how much we've been earning, spending, and saving; (2) how much we'll be able to spend on a house, college for our kids, and everything else per year in early retirement if we keep doing what we're doing until then. She has received that well, and it sets up a productive big-picture discussion about our goals and the impact of adjusting our expenses or working longer.
I do something similar with keeping things big picture. While I would certainly be interested in the EOY report that OP outlined, my spouse would not.
I think it could be useful to generate such a report and leave it in the death book/ box.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by WeakOldGuy »

stan1 wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:51 am The way I would view this is as a handover document in case you unexpectedly do get hit by a bus this year. So I would put insurance and all other accounts in this document so spouse and anyone she seeks help from have all the information in one place. That way you are reviewing the turnover information each year as well so it will be mostly current.
Reviewing that is a good idea, but the OP specifically was describing something that was a simple investment update not an EOL transition document.
On investing; I have lots of questions, many opinions, and little knowledge. A dangerous combination. Be warned.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by warner25 »

SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:15 am Maybe there are other ways to achieve at least some of what you “prefer”, rather than a forced EOY document review. Adults seldom respond well to forced anything. Much of this thread seems like parent-child behavior.
I don't disagree with your sentiments (as I think I've expressed throughout this thread), but I'd like to know if you have a better solution to the problem.

To my eye, the problem (even setting aside the "hit by a bus" problem) is that it's hard for spouses to work as a team if they're not on same page of a shared plan. It has long been my observation of this community, for example, that too many people (unilaterally handling the finances in their marriage) don't consider their spouse's risk tolerance, and that mistake could suddenly become clear at the worst possible time; e.g. finding out that your spouse is much less tolerant of stock market risk precisely when the market has crashed and it's all over their social media feed.

I don't think the suggestion to simply tell your spouse that "we have enough" solves anything. You at least need a shared understanding of what that means: enough for what?
Last edited by warner25 on Fri Jan 31, 2025 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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warner25
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by warner25 »

Larix wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:01 am...If you're willing/able to share a redacted version...
Yes, but I don't have a readily available platform to host an image (that I'm comfortable with using publicly) so I'll send you a private message to make arrangements. Others reading this can PM me too if interested.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by rogue_economist »

In case of death is very different than year end report.

Year end report, I just say we need to spend less.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by ladycat »

Not surprised that this thread has been male-dominated.
I (female) update my spouse (male), periodically with the big-picture of our household financials. Bank balances, if we need to earmark more for a large expenditure, if I took RMDs from inherited IRAs, how taxes are being withheld/paid.
Income exceeds expenses, bills are paid, and that's all he's concerned about.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by tibbitts »

ladycat wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 12:43 pm Not surprised that this thread has been male-dominated.
I (female) update my spouse (male), periodically with the big-picture of our household financials. Bank balances, if we need to earmark more for a large expenditure, if I took RMDs from inherited IRAs, how taxes are being withheld/paid.
Income exceeds expenses, bills are paid, and that's all he's concerned about.
Although this and many similar threads seem male-dominated, Boglehead gender is sometimes surprising to me when it finally comes up in a discussion. That might be due to some unintentional bias on my part.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by stan1 »

WeakOldGuy wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 12:08 pm
stan1 wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:51 am The way I would view this is as a handover document in case you unexpectedly do get hit by a bus this year. So I would put insurance and all other accounts in this document so spouse and anyone she seeks help from have all the information in one place. That way you are reviewing the turnover information each year as well so it will be mostly current.
Reviewing that is a good idea, but the OP specifically was describing something that was a simple investment update not an EOL transition document.
Of course, why not make them one and the same if we can think outside the box :-)
MBB_Boy
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by MBB_Boy »

I do something similar. Two-things for consideration:
1. Special topics to discuss- I try to pick 3 things to have a discussion about, in an effort to keep her engaged and pick her brain. If its all one-way delivery it can get boring. Examples are college savings plan (529 vs other options, amount to save, etc), early debt payoff for car and student loans, potential home renovations. Things where I can get inputs for planning

2. Financial independence projections/ timelines
SevenBridgesRoad
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SevenBridgesRoad »

warner25 wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 12:12 pm
SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 11:15 am Maybe there are other ways to achieve at least some of what you “prefer”, rather than a forced EOY document review. Adults seldom respond well to forced anything. Much of this thread seems like parent-child behavior.
I don't disagree with your sentiments (as I think I've expressed throughout this thread), but I'd like to know if you have a better solution to the problem.

To my eye, the problem (even setting aside the "hit by a bus" problem) is that it's hard for spouses to work as a team if they're not on same page of a shared plan. It has long been my observation of this community, for example, that too many people (unilaterally handling the finances in their marriage) don't consider their spouse's risk tolerance, and that mistake could suddenly become clear at the worst possible time; e.g. finding out that your spouse is much less tolerant of stock market risk precisely when the market has crashed and it's all over their social media feed.

I don't think the suggestion to simply tell your spouse that "we have enough" solves anything. You at least need a shared understanding of what that means: enough for what?
How can spouses work as a team, you ask? I can speak to what has worked very well for us, coming up on 50 years of marriage. Over our years together we've had ongoing conversations about all important things, especially about goals and milestones and things that require money. Early marriage we talked a lot about how to make it through the month on our meager income. When to have our first child. When we could afford grad school. How much to spend on a house. When to have a second child. Later it was about moving across country for a career opportunity. Should we buy a vacation home? If so, how to pay for it? These days we talk about helping our aging parents, about how we can contribute to our grandkids' future education. So it goes.

Also important: there's always a division of labor within a marriage. We talked about this early on. Probably most couples begin to differentiate based on personality, likes and dislikes, and sometimes we just agreed to divide up the gross jobs (I got cleaning the toilet somehow! Still my job to this day).

So even though I'm our finance person in our marriage, I often go to her with a question or say, "Here's something I need your input on." We've had many discussions over the years about how we each think about risk. We've reached agreements/compromises on all important things.

None of this requires me to impose an EOY power point on her. If there are concerns we talk about stuff as needed in real time.

Just to be sure I wasn't some space alien on this, I did a quick Google search on the topic of couples getting on the same page with finances. Not one hit said, "Create a really detailed EOY Financial Report that your spouse says they don't want to hear".

(There may be typos...I jotted this down pretty fast.)
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SnowBog »

SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 2:58 pm
warner25 wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 12:12 pm

I don't disagree with your sentiments (as I think I've expressed throughout this thread), but I'd like to know if you have a better solution to the problem.

To my eye, the problem (even setting aside the "hit by a bus" problem) is that it's hard for spouses to work as a team if they're not on same page of a shared plan. It has long been my observation of this community, for example, that too many people (unilaterally handling the finances in their marriage) don't consider their spouse's risk tolerance, and that mistake could suddenly become clear at the worst possible time; e.g. finding out that your spouse is much less tolerant of stock market risk precisely when the market has crashed and it's all over their social media feed.

I don't think the suggestion to simply tell your spouse that "we have enough" solves anything. You at least need a shared understanding of what that means: enough for what?
How can spouses work as a team, you ask? I can speak to what has worked very well for us, coming up on 50 years of marriage. Over our years together we've had ongoing conversations about all important things, especially about goals and milestones and things that require money. Early marriage we talked a lot about how to make it through the month on our meager income. When to have our first child. When we could afford grad school. How much to spend on a house. When to have a second child. Later it was about moving across country for a career opportunity. Should we buy a vacation home? If so, how to pay for it? These days we talk about helping our aging parents, about how we can contribute to our grandkids' future education. So it goes.

Also important: there's always a division of labor within a marriage. We talked about this early on. Probably most couples begin to differentiate based on personality, likes and dislikes, and sometimes we just agreed to divide up the gross jobs (I got cleaning the toilet somehow! Still my job to this day).

So even though I'm our finance person in our marriage, I often go to her with a question or say, "Here's something I need your input on." We've had many discussions over the years about how we each think about risk. We've reached agreements/compromises on all important things.

None of this requires me to impose an EOY power point on her. If there are concerns we talk about stuff as needed in real time.

Just to be sure I wasn't some space alien on this, I did a quick Google search on the topic of couples getting on the same page with finances. Not one hit said, "Create a really detailed EOY Financial Report that your spouse says they don't want to hear".

(There may be typos...I jotted this down pretty fast.)
Let's start with anyone "imposing" or "forcing" a lengthy review of content the other spouse has zero interest in, well that isn't going to work well...

Similar to you, and I guess many, we've divided up duties in our relationship. I have finances... We do talk though all the big items, and make big decisions together, so I think there we are on the same page... (For what it's worth, I make all the important decisions in our relationship, my spouse's job is to tell me which ones are important... :D)

Our end-of-year document is primarily for me, keeping track of changes, status, progress, etc. But it has a secondary purpose to ensue my spouse has an up-to-date printed copy of pertinent information (which is part of my previously recommended Big Book of Everything).

It's also used to help us "talk through the big items". How did we do against budget this month, year? How are we tracking towards savings goals such as retirement, college savings, etc.? Any adjustments needed?

Of the 20+ pages in my document, 1 we actually look at monthly (overall summary), and historically 1 more (changes to annual budget) we look at annually. This year I added 1 more (VPW worksheet), as I want them to get comfortable with that to help manage withdrawals/spending when we transition into retirement so they don't end up being lost if I die first... The rest are available to my spouse, to review, ask questions, ignore, etc. as they see fit. No way would I force them to sit down and review all that content... But at the same time, I feel obligated that they have a right to know where our assets are at, amoung other info... Transparency works for us.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by SevenBridgesRoad »

SnowBog wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 4:18 pm
SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 2:58 pm

How can spouses work as a team, you ask? I can speak to what has worked very well for us, coming up on 50 years of marriage. Over our years together we've had ongoing conversations about all important things, especially about goals and milestones and things that require money. Early marriage we talked a lot about how to make it through the month on our meager income. When to have our first child. When we could afford grad school. How much to spend on a house. When to have a second child. Later it was about moving across country for a career opportunity. Should we buy a vacation home? If so, how to pay for it? These days we talk about helping our aging parents, about how we can contribute to our grandkids' future education. So it goes.

Also important: there's always a division of labor within a marriage. We talked about this early on. Probably most couples begin to differentiate based on personality, likes and dislikes, and sometimes we just agreed to divide up the gross jobs (I got cleaning the toilet somehow! Still my job to this day).

So even though I'm our finance person in our marriage, I often go to her with a question or say, "Here's something I need your input on." We've had many discussions over the years about how we each think about risk. We've reached agreements/compromises on all important things.

None of this requires me to impose an EOY power point on her. If there are concerns we talk about stuff as needed in real time.

Just to be sure I wasn't some space alien on this, I did a quick Google search on the topic of couples getting on the same page with finances. Not one hit said, "Create a really detailed EOY Financial Report that your spouse says they don't want to hear".

(There may be typos...I jotted this down pretty fast.)
Let's start with anyone "imposing" or "forcing" a lengthy review of content the other spouse has zero interest in, well that isn't going to work well...

Similar to you, and I guess many, we've divided up duties in our relationship. I have finances... We do talk though all the big items, and make big decisions together, so I think there we are on the same page... (For what it's worth, I make all the important decisions in our relationship, my spouse's job is to tell me which ones are important... :D)

Our end-of-year document is primarily for me, keeping track of changes, status, progress, etc. But it has a secondary purpose to ensue my spouse has an up-to-date printed copy of pertinent information (which is part of my previously recommended Big Book of Everything).

It's also used to help us "talk through the big items". How did we do against budget this month, year? How are we tracking towards savings goals such as retirement, college savings, etc.? Any adjustments needed?

Of the 20+ pages in my document, 1 we actually look at monthly (overall summary), and historically 1 more (changes to annual budget) we look at annually. This year I added 1 more (VPW worksheet), as I want them to get comfortable with that to help manage withdrawals/spending when we transition into retirement so they don't end up being lost if I die first... The rest are available to my spouse, to review, ask questions, ignore, etc. as they see fit. No way would I force them to sit down and review all that content... But at the same time, I feel obligated that they have a right to know where our assets are at, amoung other info... Transparency works for us.
I'm glad we both agree that imposing a lengthy review is not going to work well.

I think your process sounds great; well-thought out, very useful for you and well-accepted by your spouse, who looks at what they find valuable. Thanks for mentioning the VPW worksheet. We also use the VPW method and retirement worksheet. Our agreement is that it's on my task list, but her contribution was to learn how to do the monthly update. We did this together a few months until she was comfortable. I'll ask her every few months if she wants to go through it again. (Always a no, but she thanks me for doing it.) Now my job is update her if there are major changes or if I have concerns.

We also have a Hit By The Bus Book (why is it always a bus?). She knows where it is.
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by Cletus Davenport »

My spouse has no interest in any of it, so I don’t bother.
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LiveSimple
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by LiveSimple »

Now I focus on retirement projections and RMD
Invest when you have the money, sell when you need the money, for real life expenses...
Irene
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by Irene »

ladycat wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 12:43 pm Not surprised that this thread has been male-dominated.
I (female) update my spouse (male), periodically with the big-picture of our household financials. Bank balances, if we need to earmark more for a large expenditure, if I took RMDs from inherited IRAs, how taxes are being withheld/paid.
Income exceeds expenses, bills are paid, and that's all he's concerned about.
Our household is similar. I've always paid the bills, done the taxes, and back when we kept a much more careful budget, I was the one spending the time sitting with Quicken making sure things were labeled. Heck, I used to input grocery receipts every day, splitting the transactions into "food" and "household." My husband, like me, was raised by Depression babies, but his response was to have a lot of anxiety about money and hate dealing with any of it, whereas mine was to obsess about details, sometimes usefully, sometimes not.
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warner25
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Re: EOY Report on Personal Finances for Spouse

Post by warner25 »

SevenBridgesRoad wrote: Fri Jan 31, 2025 4:38 pmwhy is it always a bus?
This is a good point, haha. If you're "hit by a bus," your survivors would probably be in line to receive a very significant award in a lawsuit against the city, and then their financial situation would be radically different anyway.

Thanks for your thoughtful reply to my earlier question, by the way. 50 years of marriage is impressive.
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