Blog

The daily household routine with squabbles over money, work and children can take its toll on a relationship. Those minor spats and squabbles can easily escalate into full-blown fights unless you have good communication skills and a willingness to use them thoughtfully. Here are some tips.

Create a roadmap for discussion and decisions. Disagreement doesn’t have to be inevitable if you know each other’s basic wants and fears and have a basic map for navigating through them. Conflict can be soothed with compromise.

Know that when it comes to conflict, there is no right answer. Your financial advisor may have created an investment plan, or your lawyer may have drawn up a pre-nup, but no outsider can create a structure that will mediate your everyday money decisions. Be gentle with each other. We all have financial foibles.

Remember that timing is everything. Your attempts to work out differences require one or more conversations that may continue periodically for weeks or months. Find a quiet, comfortable place to talk, listen carefully to each other, and share your feelings without judging. Agree on a time to reconvene if emotions run hot.

Successful communication improves relationships by increasing intimacy and trust. Investing time and effort into resolving differences can lead to a long and lasting partnership.

Originally published in “Chicago Woman”