Newlyweds and couples moving toward marriage, take note. Love, as it turns out, is not all you need.
Not if your goal is to avoid the No. 1 reason marriages end in divorce: Money problems.
"Mature, responsible conversations about money are a sign of a marriage that's going to be healthy and wonderful and enduring," said Brooke Salvini, a certified financial planner based in San Louis Obispo, Calif. "If you can't talk about money when you are dating, that is a red flag right there."
To get the conversation rolling, here are seven steps experts recommend to steer clear of marital money troubles:
Disclose financial records.
Before corporations merge they get a close look at each other's financial records. Take the same approach before you get hitched.
Swap statements for your bank accounts, credit cards, student loans, retirement accounts and so on. Also share credit reports and FICO scores.
"Not only can you start to put together a balance sheet of what the two of you own and what your debts are, you can start to discuss 'Do we want to combine our checking account?' " Salvini said.
Discuss financial goals.
A huge part of getting in sync with your spouse begins with discussing major life goals and the necessary financial commitments.
Discuss short-term goals, such as paying off credit card debt, and then craft a budget that sets you clearly on a path toward your goals.
Budget spending.
Failing to create and stick to a mutually agreed upon budget can lead to marital strife.
It doesn't have to be complicated. Start off by listing monthly income. Add in interest earned on money-market accounts and dividends from any investments. Then add up all expenses, including car payments, rent, groceries, gym membership and utilities.
If you're making more than you spend each month, begin planning how to set aside money for long-term financial goals. If not, consider ways to cut spending.
Treat your money as "our money."
Many newlyweds continue to see the money they earn individually as their own. They keep separate bank accounts and pitch in, perhaps equally, or not, to pay bills.
That can lead to problems, especially if one spouse earns a lot more than the other, said Anthony Chambers, a clinical psychologist at the Family Institute at Northwestern University.
If both spouses work, he suggests they arrange for their paychecks to be deposited directly into a joint account that's used to pay all shared expenses.
If they feel they need to have some of their money in a separate account, that's fine. But Chambers said the funds should come from the joint account so both spouses know where the money is going.
Keep credit cards separate.
It's not necessary to make your spouse a joint accountholder on your credit cards, especially if he or she has a poor credit history, which can drag down your own credit rating. Instead, make your spouse an authorized user of your credit cards. This avoids potential impact to your credit rating.
Don't split costs 50-50.
In marriage as in most other scenarios, money is power. Although splitting household costs down the middle may work early on in a relationship, it can breed resentment when one spouse makes a lot more money than the other.
"Very few things in marriage are exactly 50-50," said Chambers. "That can really start to bring up all of these other issues of fairness."
Talk about spending.
Talk about spending to find out how your habits match up. One person might have grown up in a family that counted every penny. The other might part far more easily with money.
Even small differences can become wedge issues later on.
Google Has A Magic Money Making Machine - The Business Insider
The number one comparison point for Facebook as it headed towards an IPO was Google. Facebook, like Google, was a giant web company that had hundreds of millions of users. Facebook, like Google, was working on highly-targeted ads that could hit hundreds of millions of consumers.
But a funny thing happened on Facebook's path to becoming Google 2.0 (from a business perspective). Everyone suddenly realized Facebook's ads aren't that good. And everyone realized that Facebook's ads, while very good at targeting, aren't nearly as powerful or effective as Google's.
And then everyone realized Facebook isn't going to have its own magic money making machine. If it's going to make lots of money, it's going to be more of a grind to figure it out.
In our newsroom, someone threw out a good analogy for Facebook's ad business*: It's like you're at a party, standing around, talking to your friends, and someone made the posters on the wall advertisements. Maybe you'll look at them, but they're not really what you're there to do.
Google, on the other hand, is like you're walking through a grocery store looking for whatever you need and the advertiser gets to jump in at the last second and offer you what you're looking for.
As Chris Dixon has written, successful online advertising is all about purchasing intent. How do you capture commercial consumer interest?
Google's entire business is based on people asking commercial questions and giving advertisers an opportunity to provide the top 2-3 answers to the question.
That's an amazing business. And it's one Facebook doesn't have.
That's not say Facebook isn't going to figure out a way to make gobs and gobs of money. It has 900 million users. It has a team of super smart people looking to solve a hard problem. It can figure something out.
It's just not likely to be a magical money making machine like what Google has.
Don't Miss: Here's What Could Happen Next To Facebook's Stock
*We apologize if this analogy was from somewhere else and we didn't realize. Credit to whoever came up with it.
Nigeria’s adoption of IFR shaky …As companies falter on global trend - Vanguard
By Prince Osuagwu
Nigeria joined other counterparts in the World business community, January 1, 2012, in the adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).
However, reports are that barely six months after, many companies still face challenges of complying with the requirements of that law, particularly, that of closing, reporting and filing their financial accounts accurately.
50 Nigerian companies were included in a global survey of 1123 medium to large organisations conducted in April 2012, to establish their level of investment in, and use of financial close, reporting and filing software systems. The results of the survey will show that while Nigeria invested heavily in all three areas of the process little more than two years ago, companies today do not yet have adequate control of their systems.
The survey also shows that most companies anticipate the cost of reporting to rise over the next five years, and that 40% of those interviewed believed their job was at stake if there were errors or deadlines missed.
The report released Thursday, from Oracle and Accenture revealed that companies in Nigeria are not following the global trend of investing in financial reporting systems intended to improve their close, reporting and filing processes, leaving businesses with ineffective solutions and a lack of visibility, quality and confidence in their financial data.
The research report, titled “Challenges of Corporate Financial Reporting,” highlighted that businesses were unable to fully understand the cost of their financial reporting, with 74% of finance professionals unable to identify the total cost. Unfortunately this percentage is remarkably higher than the global average of 60%
The report suggested that a lack of investment in proper software and an over-reliance on spreadsheets and e-mails increases costs and results in ineffectual financial reporting and missed key deadlines.
The report surveyed about 1,123 finance professionals in large organizations in 12 countries, including Nigeria, South Africa, the UAE, UK, USA, Germany and Russia.
Research Highlights
The report also highlighted that businesses in Nigeria recognize the need to invest in new financial reporting systems to address efficiency challenges. 80 % of surveyed companies have made changes over the last three years to their close, filing and reporting processes. Meanwhile, only 18% have invested substantially in at least one of these three areas over the past 12 months, the lowest in the survey along with the Middle East.
•Insufficient, Ineffective investments: Whilst 16% of businesses in the survey have invested in just one of the three financial reporting phases (close, reporting and filings); only 2% have invested in all three.
It noted that 68 percent of spreadsheets and 36 percent of emails are heavily used to track and manage reporting on a daily basis.
•Increased costs and uncertainty: 28%of finance teams claim to have seen their costs rise across the financial close, reporting and filing processes.
Importantly, the situation is so opaque that managers across the finance function are unable to fully understand the financial impact/cost implications of managing and publicizing their company’s financial results. 74% of Nigerian respondents admitted they did not know the total cost of managing and publicizing financial results, whereas 60% of companies globally confessed that they were unable to put a figure to the cost.
•Persistent challenges: Due to inadequate reporting systems, the majority of businesses reported that they still face significant problems with financial reporting. 88% of respondents admitted that they have inadequate visibility of reporting processes as compared with 68% globally, while 82% of finance managers reported that they find it difficult to control the quality of financial data across the course of their reporting, highlighting that additional
attention should be paid to performance management.
•Decreased effectiveness: Despite the challenges presented by unreliable and opaque data, finance teams are sanguine about how effectively they can do their jobs. 72% of finance managers feel their effectiveness is limited in some way by data analysis-related issues, most admitting they did not have adequate visibility of reporting processes. Failure to meet formal reporting deadlines was most common in Nigeria, with 32% of businesses indicating that they have
missed statutory filings.
•Addressing the challenge: Encouragingly, businesses are intending to take steps to improve financial reporting methods, with 86% of companies likely to make a significant investment over the next five years, an approach which may address many of the challenges they currently face, and bring their reporting processes into line with their performance expectations. 38% of businesses are due to overhaul all three phases of reporting, a slightly lower percentage
than the global average (46%)
Evaluating the report, Vice President EPM Product Marketing at Oracle, Mr John O’Rourke, said that “it is clear from the report that businesses are well aware that financial reporting needs to change. The good news is that many are doing something positive about this by investing in new reporting systems.
Financial News Hedge Fund Awards 2012 - efinancialnews.com
Focus on risk mitigation pays off
Hedge fund managers are known for fiercely guarding their privacy and Alan Howard, the secretive trader at the helm of Brevan Howard Asset Management, epitomises this. Howard, who received the Award for Outstanding Individual Contribution (Editorial Choice), declined to be interviewed by Financial News for this article.
Mo’ money, mo’ squabbles over scholarship for Diddy’s son - Chicago Sun-Times
By Bill Zwecker June 3, 2012 9:08PM
NEW YORK - JANUARY 23: Sean "Diddy" Combs and son Justin Dior Combs attend Justin Dior Combs' 16th birthday party at M2 Ultra Lounge on January 23, 2010 in New York City. (Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images) *** Local Caption *** Sean "Diddy" Combs;Justin Dior Combs
Updated: June 3, 2012 9:58PM
The decision by UCLA to award a full-ride scholarship to young football star Justin Combs — son of multimillionaire entertainment mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs — has generated a huge debate online and on the campus of the Southern California university.
While many argue the younger Combs earned the scholarship on his merits, I’ve learned there’s considerable backlash among key UCLA alumni and fund-raising honchos. During this time of tough economic challenges, many UCLA alumni who play major roles in Hollywood’s showbiz world believe that need should trump everything else.
“I know it seems unfair to Justin, but clearly he has had so many advantages in his life. … Those funds should have gone to a kid who otherwise might not be able to attend UCLA,” said a top studio executive and university alum Sunday, who also said, “Everyone I’ve spoken to is on the same page about this.”
† Diddy’s camp believes that Justin is entitled to the scholarship, and no one’s intending to give it back. That said, there also is word that Combs Sr. will be very, very generous to UCLA fund-raising efforts.
“I’ll bet he’ll end up giving the university more — over a period of time — than Justin is getting over the next four years,” said a close Combs associate.
DEJA VU? Is Charlie Sheen slipping back into his old ways — partying wildly, drinking heavily and surrounding himself with a bunch of porn stars? That was the contention of some weekend reports the actor was laughing off, claiming he’s well in control of himself. Sheen blasted the unnamed “friends” who gossiped about him to several celebrity magazines and websites, saying, “Consider the sources.” My own sources close to Sheen do express concern that he seems to be repeating the behavior that caused him problems in the past. “Charlie now thinks he’s able to control himself and won’t be pushed over the edge by surrounding himself with booze, drugs and porn stars,” said a longtime Sheen associate, who did add, “so far he’s doing OK. “I just worry, he’ll go crazy all over again — and totally lose control.” “I don’t care what anyone says,” added a second source. “Charlie has always been a trigger for Brooke’s addictions. Always has been. Always will be. I’m sorry, I just don’t think that will ever change.”
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