Stronger Families: Talking About Money Builds Healthy Relationships

Stronger Families – a non-profit that provides education, resources, advocacy and training that supports marriages and families – knows that money plays a crucial role in working to build and sustain healthy relationships. Director of Communications Noel Meador says the organization’s “Oxygen for Your Relationship Seminar” gives couples an action plan for their relationship with the help of Money Habitudes. The tool is used to help provide financial insights for couples, open meaningful discussions about how people relate to money and each other and set the stage for budgeting and money management.

Outcomes

In using Money Habitudes with couples, Stronger Families has been able to:

• Give people a way to understand their relationship with money in a more holistic light.
• Provide insights on their own and their spouses’ spending and saving habits, allowing for more productive subsequent discussions about budgets.
• Offer an easy way for participants to share their experience and outcomes using Money Habitudes with friends.
• Provide insights into how finances for military members can affect how they’re treating their spouse, why they’re not communicating well or why there’s conflict.

How They Use Money Habitudes

• Stronger Families uses the Money Habitudes cards as part of their 4-hour “Oxygen for Your Relationship Seminar.”
• The organization used content adapted from Dave Ramsey’s financial education courses, which built on the conversations started by Money Habitudes and focused on more concrete financial steps, especially budgeting.
• Stronger Families is now relying upon the learnings it gained through Money Habitudes in the half-day curriculum it uses with marriage mentors in area churches. The program keys on relationship health, financial health and parenting health. Although not technically a train-the-trainer offering, mentors are trained by Stronger Families on tools and techniques so they can teach and instruct other couples who want to improve or save their marriage.