Two heads are better than one, so sit down with your spouse and plan out your financial future together.
Prioritize your bills.
By determining which bills to pay in which order, you'll get in the habit of making sure your essentials are always paid first.
Be careful using credit. Sometimes a financial crisis will come not because of a layoff, but because you're overextended. Most people can afford to devote 10 percent of their net income (after taxes) to installment debt, not including mortgage or rent payments. If you pay out more than 15 percent, you need to cut back.
Establish an emergency fund. Open a savings account and start "paying yourself" 10 percent of each paycheck.
What happens if we run into an emergency and our emergency fund isn’t enough?
Don't panic. When facing a financial crisis, stay calm. This will help you think logically and you'll avoid unnecessary arguments with your spouse.
Quit spending money. When faced with a financial challenge, it's easy to use your credit cards. But you may run up your balance to the credit limit and not be able to afford the payments, which will result in a poor credit rating—something you won't want during a crisis time.
Prioritize your bills. Pay essential, or survival, bills first: food, mortgage or rent, utilities. Next, pay car insurance, medical needs, child support, and any loans such as automobiles and furniture that are secured as collateral.
Then pay the nonessential bills—those debts in which no immediate consequences occur if paid late: credit and charge cards, attorney, medical, and accounting bills, newspaper and magazine subscriptions, life insurance, childcare, gyms, - continued below ...
