Army Community Service at Camp Ederle: Money Habitudes Helps Save Marriages from Divorce

In his work leading a course for couples intending to divorce, Kent Thompson — financial program manager with Army Community Service, Camp Ederle, U.S. Army Garrison, Vicenza, Italy — says Money Habitudes provides revealing insights for couples regarding money that often lead to significant breakthroughs. Most couples aren’t initially eager to attend the course, “Military + Divorce,” created to provide information so couples can settle their finances as part of the impending divorce, but they often leave with surprising results.

Outcomes

By using Money Habitudes with divorcing couples as part of his classes, Thompson was able to:

• Create a non-threatening, non-judgmental judgmental environment where couples would let down their guard and talk more freely – a big accomplishment as money and divorce are two notoriously uncomfortable topics to discuss in private, let alone in a class situation.
• Help break down barriers of resentment and misunderstanding, allowing the divorcing couples to see their partner’s perspective.
• Help couples discover individual challenges with money as well as weak spots between them.
• Provide a platform for couples to better understand each other and their disagreements, resulting in most of the divorcing couples deciding to turn away from divorce – an unexpected outcome as the course was not designed to fix marriages.

How They Use Money Habitudes

• Rather than initiating discussions by talking about budgeting, as was done with the standard curriculum, the Money Habitudes Solitaire game was used as an initial class activity with the couples. Each couple individually did the solitaire game and then talked about it as a couple.
• After using the cards, couples discovered weak spots between them and Thompson then used those cues to lay out the list of other classes offered.