4 New Year's Resolutions About Money for Married Couples
- Brian Page
- Dec 19, 2025
- 4 min read
The new year is a fresh start, a significant point in time that marks a break from the past and a sense of renewal. These points in time encourage a fresh start, thereby increasing people’s intentions to pursue goals.
Most people fail to fulfill their New Year's resolutions due to a lack of time or motivation. Strategies that lead to ongoing success rarely involve newfound discipline or sacrifice. What works best is to change your lifestyle and environment.
Do you want to spend less?
Remove the Amazon app from your phone and clear the saved financial information in your cart to make spending inconvenient.
Do you want to save more?
Make saving automatic by splitting your paycheck into a savings account at a different bank or credit union than your primary checking account.
Your savings account balance will be out of sight, out of mind, and less convenient to transfer to your checking account.
Regardless of your New Year's resolution, your best chance of sticking to it is to change your lifestyle and environment to make success easier.
1. No More Money Fights with Your Spouse
Every year, survey results find that money is a leading cause of stress in a marriage and divorce. When experts dig deeper, they discover that it is more complicated.
Our relationship with money is tied to our upbringing and values, and our spouses may have had a very different relationship with money than we do. We can expect arguments to continue until couples understand, from each other's perspectives, the role money should play in their marriage.
Modern Husbands Podcast Episode
Dr. Michael Thomas is an award-winning lecturer at the University of Georgia, where he teaches Financial Planning, Housing, and Consumer Economics.
At the 17:45-minute mark, Dr. Thomas shares examples of how couples' financial problems can go wrong and offers suggestions for handling them.
In our post How to Manage Money in a Marriage, we shared the details of the following nine essential tips every couple should know:
Understand your relationship with money
Prepare for tough money conversations
Communicate
Learn to hate the Joneses
Identify shared financial goals and values
Set a budget
Establish money management roles and expectations
Find the money management tools that work for you
The psychology of managing money with your spouse
Professional Support
I support couples who want to better manage money or the home as a team in their relationship.
I'm the only Accredited Financial Counselor® and Fair Play Facilitator®, empowering high-achieving couples with systems to manage money and the home as a team — drawn from decades of national leadership and lived experience.
Click here to learn more about me and how I can help.
2. Save Money Together the Smart Way
According to research, saving makes us happier and enhances marital happiness. The concept of saving is easy to understand, and saving money as a couple requires planning, shared savings goals, and creating an environment that makes saving effortless and automatic.
Tips for How to Save Money: For Couples is a previous post that dives into the details of five specific tips:
Save for emergencies first
Set your savings goals together
Change your environment
Make it automatic
Give yourself some grace
Some couples need much more than an article full of wisdom. That is why we created the course I now offer for free, Money Marriage U Save.
Money Marriage U Save is where you can spend a little time learning to save a lot of money. The course is engaging and delivered in tandem with the past president of the Financial Therapy Association.
3. Build a Budget That Sticks
Research has found that the best time to build a budget is at the beginning of something. For example, at the beginning of the year, the month, or a marriage. Here are three resources or articles that will help you and your spouse build out a budget that sticks:
Money Marriage U Budget
Money Marriage U Budget allows you to learn at your own pace. The course includes short video clips, interactives, an interactive budget template for couples, and Money Date cards.
Everything You Need to Build Your Budget
I walk couples through a practical, step-by-step approach to building a budget by starting with a full review of their past financial choices in my post, Everything You Need to Build Your Budget.
I guide readers on how to collect and organize transactions, choose the right tools, categorize expenses to uncover meaningful patterns, and share how to talk about money with your partner.
4. Pay Down Your Debts
For many in America, the affordability crisis is real. Many young adults cannot buy a home because their student loan debt is too high. And credit card debt is an ongoing problem in the United States. For whatever reason, you and your spouse are in debt, and the illustration below includes two clear strategies you can use to get out of debt.
I have shared countless ideas for couples who want to pay down debt together and posted them on my Credit Cards and Borrowing page.
Learn More
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