Help! I'm Out Of Money

According to 2023 data, the poverty line in California for 2 people is $3325/mo, or slightly under $40,000/yr. Also, according to the 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, nearly 30% of people have virtually nothing saved for retirement, and 33% have less than $50,000 in total savings and investments.  

It is always sad to sit with couples in counseling who have come to retirement age with nothing but Social Security income, and often with debt as well. It puts them at or below the poverty level with little hope for a better financial future. Plus, when one of the spouses passes on, one of the Social Security checks disappears. It might necessitate getting back into the working world when jobs are hard to acquire.

Social Security benefits were never designed to be a substitute for a retirement plan – just a short term supplement when life expectancy was much shorter than it is today. 

Because money can be such a huge area of conflict in a marriage I thought it would be wise to emphasize the importance of taking a serious stance on putting away money for the future no matter what age you might be or what your marital status is at the moment.

What I found to work is:

• Create a very conservative spending plan and stick to it. (I use Quicken to help automate the process.)

•  Treat all raises as money that can either reduce debt or increase savings. 

• Maximize all contributions to employer and government sponsored retirement plans to the best of your ability (401K, 403B, IRA, etc). 

• Take a Dave Ramsey or Crown Financial course. 

• Have automatic withdrawals set-up when possible. It often feels painful to write out a check to a retirement account you might not use for 30-40 years. Think about how it would feel if you had to write separate checks for Federal, State, Social Security, Medicare and SDI taxes every paycheck. (Actually, that might be a good thing.) 

• Use financial counselors when needed. 

• Question and resist new technology – it can be very expensive to keep up with all the newly available offerings. New tech becomes old tech very rapidly.

• Talk to your spouse regularly about money and spending and make sure you are on the same page so that one of you doesn’t sabotage your plan. 

• Dump the entitlement mentality. Never use the phrase “I deserve”. The Bible tells us what we deserve – that’s why we need a Savior. 

What is the goal here? It’s so that you can be a help, rather than a hindrance to others. 

Emotional (Dys)Regulation

 

When Nan and I were in counseling back in the late 1980’s we took a comprehensive psychological assessment. Among other measurements it pinpointed aspects of our personalities. I can’t say that I remember most of it, but one category stood out to both of us. And that was our struggle to manage our emotions during conflict.

What we discovered was that during an argument we could dysregulate somewhat rapidly. And simultaneous dysregulation leads to symmetrical escalation. What that means in plain terms is that the ever increasing intensity of both our feelings were driving our responses into the red zone. Our parasympathetic (emotional braking) systems were out of whack.

But our counselor David saw something in the assessment that was very helpful. Although we both had high scales in this particular category, he pointed out that mine was lower. And he assigned the job of de-escalation to me. (Thanks for nothing, David). But the truth is, he was right. I discovered that I did have the greater ability to slow the escalation down. I just didn’t always want to do it. (There’s that sin nature!)

Think about your relationship. Do you tend to “one up” each other in a conflict? That’s symmetrical escalation. If you do, is it because you believe you have no control over your tongue? Or might you be more like me and see trouble coming, but not want to restrain yourself. Those delicious but biting remarks seem so tasty at the moment, don’t they? Unfortunately the Bible has a lot to say about not controlling our tongues. They can speak life or death into a marriage.

Often the escalation of our emotions takes place in our head before we even address the issue with our partner. We fuel it with our ruminating thoughts.

So what can you do?

• You will definitely have to get a firm grip on your destructive self talk.

• You can process the big feelings with God until you are confident that you can manage to keep them relationship-sized.

• You may need to talk with a safe person who will listen to you and help you deescalate your intensity.

• You can surrender your insistence on having the last word in argument.

If you are already dysregulated the best tactic I have found is withdrawing temporarily until you calm down. I believe there is always a jumping off point if we decide to look for it and choose it. It may be difficult in the heat of a conflict, but it will always work. Have an agreement with your spouse that if either of you needs to take a “time out” that you both will honor it. It is not okay to follow an upset person and keep talking at them. Conversely, when we withdraw we must return after cooling down, and try to bring the issue to a resolution if at all possible.

One last note: dysregulation can also take the form of progressively shutting down and eventually emotionally freezing. In this case the solution is the same. It requires withdrawing until we are able to  "thaw out" and reengage. 

Regardless of which tendency we have, to power up or shut down, once we emotionally regulate we need to come back together, hopefully as friends.    

Which Way Do We Go? -- Walking In The Same Direction

 

One of the anchoring bible verses that we have used in our pre-engagement class is Amos 3:3 which asks this question:

“Can two people walk together without agreeing on the direction?”

At first blush it is easy to answer “Well, duh!” But of course we are really asking the couple to consider whether they are in agreement with the direction they want to take as they anticipate putting their lives together. It is a serious question that sometimes only gets fully answered after the rings are on the fingers.

We push for couples to uncover in themselves any unconscious expectations that they hold as well as verbalizing the conscious ones. It’s always good to read the fine print of the contract you are about to sign.

What might these topics include?

• Where are we going to live?
• Do we both hold jobs once children come into the picture? Do we want children? How many?
• What level of lifestyle do we expect?
• Do we press for home ownership and a rooted life or a life of flexibility and adventure?
• Do we agree on how to spend money? Who controls the purse? Do we combine our money?
• Do we see spiritual, political and social issues similarly?
• What is our commitment to church attendance and engagement with that community?

As you can see I’ve only touched the surface of the possible questions to be asked. The assessments that are administered in classes like ours will illuminate many of these questions and will prompt some great discussions. But it is the unaddressed ones that may become troublesome.

If you are in a relationship considering marriage, how thoroughly do you think you have discussed these essential topics? If you are married, are you satisfied that you knew your mate and their aspirations pretty well before taking the plunge?

What if you find you are in a situation where your goals don’t align?

If unmarried, you can always have a “good goodbye”. That’s the most sure solution and might avoid a lot of future pain. But that may be very hard to do if you are very connected already. Then you might have to consider the same strategy as a married couple, which is to pursue realistic compromises. These compromises have to be negotiated with a humble attitude, giving weight to the other person’s desires. The decisions must not leave resentment in their wake or the process will have been a failure.

What can be negotiated? I believe anything that is in the category of “preferences” can be put on the table. However, sometimes our preferences are so strong that they become a “deal breaker”. They will fall into the category of a “must have”. At that point a strong disagreement may put the relationship in jeopardy. In a marriage particularly, this is a troublesome situation because it can become unresolved for years and be the content of many conflicts.

So, as always, do the homework and walk in the same direction with confidence and joy.