Recently in our Relationships and Finances series, we discussed Learning About Finance Together. This post touched on how you and your spouse can develop a great financial relationship based on self-education and learning together. However, we only touched on what you can do personally if you have not yet developed your financial muscles, not on how to encourage your spouse to become financially fit.

Before joining the forces of the self-employed, I previously worked as a paralegal. The firm I worked for dealt with Life Care Planning (aka estate planning). When we asked clients to bring their financial documents with them to the next meeting, they came in with literally boxes upon boxes of paperwork, some of it relevant, most of it not. One of my jobs was to wade through the piles and pick out those choice items that were actually relevant, make copies, and then create a Life Care Binder for them.

As we discussed in our Mutual Funds post, when you invest in a standard mutual fund, the stocks are diversified in a nice, safe manner. Hopefully, you can ride them out and gain lots of money along the way. Retirement will be sunny and warm, and your heartbeat won’t flutter out the window every time the market shifts.

I don't know about everyone else, but I must say that I have definitely been keeping up with the news about the potential government shut down. Yet, in the midst of everything, there comes a point when we have to remember that life does go on. Over the last week, I spent some time reading your blogs, planting some roses, and just enjoying the beautiful days we have been having.

Before I plant, I always check radar to see what kind of weather to expect. While the forecasts are not always accurate, they do at least give me some idea what to plan for.

I have not always been a dog person. In fact, I was a cat person for most of my life. Dogs were an animal I only tolerated, so when I found myself working briefly as a veterinary assistant, I was sure I would fall in love with all the cats and endure the dogs. The opposite actually happened. I fell in love with a customer’s blue Great Dane, and all large breed dogs became my preference over cats.

Princely Devotion and Despair

Recently, as some of you might recall, my "Savings to the Extreme" post mentioned an "extreme couponer." To refresh your memory, this man clipped coupons like some of us breathe air. The documentary-type show followed him to a grocery store where he stocked up on all kinds of products at really low prices, like 80 bottles of hand soap for just over a quarter each.

Continuing our Relationship and Finance series, we come to “The Plan.” We have built the basics, and now, with knowledge in our pockets, let’s look at ways to build a financial plan.

Design Your Blueprints

As you build your joint financial future with your spouse, you will be relying on all of the building blocks you have already laid through your work in the series, beginning with talking about your ideal future.

The best thing about tax-time? The refund. Such a joyous time, don't you think? When you hear the word, doesn’t it make your little heart go pitter-pat in sheer delight? Regardless of whether overpaying your taxes so you get a big refund is a good idea, for most self-employed people they probably aren't going to have a refund. Let's look at some ways to minimize what you'll have to pay, or maybe even get you into that refund territory.

Deductions

So, let’s say you have $10,000 to invest (I wish I did, too). You could buy $10,000 worth of a stock -- all at one time -- and hope the value goes up. Or you could purchase shares of a stock in smaller bunches over a longer period time to increase your odds of buying at a lower price — and to decrease your market risk.

This tactic is called dollar cost averaging, and it could save you a lot of dough in losses should your stock choice crash. Still not making much sense? Let’s look at this idea a little closer, with a hypothetical example.

It’s been another great week here at MomVesting.  Perhaps it’s spring beginning to mingle into our senses, but the future is looking bright.  I hope everything has been going great for you, as well.