Week 10

We have talked about so many things in these last 9 weeks. Since being in a relationship, to marrying. But we have not really talked about finances in marriage. Why is this so important? Well, sadly as I said last week, money is a big cause of divorce. But before talking about it, I want to talk a little bit about communication. If you guys remember my story from last week about this marriage where the husband did not wake up her wife to say bye, they talked afterward to make things up. This is a really important thing in the relationship because if they would not talk about it, the problem will continue until one of them say something. Communication is a good thing in a married couple, and couples in general because due to communication people can express their feelings, fears, and passions. It is due to communication that a couple becomes a couple. Sadly, with time this might get kind of rusty. Anyways, please communicate with your spouse in a passive voice and be the best of yourself.

Now let’s talk about money in the relationship. In this week’s class, I could learn that finance management is way more important than money itself. Brother Williams told us a real story about this. Back then, when his children were still little, he and his wife made fifty thousand dollars a year (I do not really remember the exact amount). This money was enough for the family (family of 7). They were able to meet a family that was not doing the best economically. Brother Williams tried to talk about it with them and invited them to therapy. They could talk, and Brother Williams found out that the family was making almost ninety thousand a year. This was unbelievable because if Brother Williams was doing good with forty thousand then why this family was not good with more than the double. They went over to their finances and found out that this family was expending more than double in food and entertainment. This was funny because Brother Williams had the same amount of people in his family than this family. The family started to do better with money, and everything started to look better to them. This is why finances are way more important than money. But, what if even with good finances, a family is still not able to make enough money. We saw some examples of this. Sadly, most of the time is the father of the family the one in charge of making money and bring it home. Sometimes, a dad may work or even 18 hours a day just so the family can do better. Sometimes, the father just likes to work and bring more and more money even if the family is good. In both scenarios, the children can feel the absence of him. Learning this was very interesting for me because my dad used to do this. When my father married, they were not rich. Sadly, my dad did not go to college, and my mom had to drop out because they did not have enough money for her to go to college. Therefore, my dad decided to buy a car with some savings and be a taxi driver. To be honest, I do not have too many memories of my dad when I was little because he was working hard to see his family get better. I remember he used to work since 7 AM. He would come back at 2 PM to eat lunch, then he would take a nap. He woke up at 5 PM and work until 11 PM. I was very little, but still remember watching him sleep, and sometimes playing together. I love the fact that my dad loved us so much that he did all those things for us. After almost 7 years he found a better job, and now he just works from 7 AM to 3 PM. The funny thing is that he works at the same school I went to. I passed from not seeing him that much to see him all day.

Yes, money is important, but if you can bring enough to your house, then do not work more than you need because your children want to see you.