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From YourTango

Balancing the family budget requires teamwork and setting common goals. People who are in love support each other through thick and thin—through good and bad financial times. Before you decide that he’s the right guy to marry, you need to take a serious look at how he views financial goals, choices and commitments.

Since the number one cause of disagreements in marriages is financial, it’s critical to observe if the guy you think you want to marry exhibits any of these 12 warning signs:

1. You are not on the same financial page. In fact, you disagree about almost all financial goals, choices, and commitments.

2. When you quiz him about his personal budget, it’s clear that he doesn’t have one. When you suggest that budgeting is a good thing and try to show him how to prepare a financial budget, he acts disinterested or feigns interest and never goes any further with the budgeting process.

3. Rather than pay off his credit cards each month, he pays the minimum. He often pays late or doesn’t pay them at all. This is a regular occurrence because he never seems to have enough money to pay his bills.

4. He is often out of work. He blames other people, the high unemployment rate or other circumstances beyond his control for his lack of employment. He often says that it’s just a temporary situation, but even when he’s working he doesn’t seem to keep a job for very long.

5. He excessively spends his money without regard to his income. It seems that he’s living far beyond his ability to support that level of lifestyle. When he wants something, he buys it without regard to what it costs or how he will pay for it.

Read more on YourTango.com.

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Developing a budget is an essential part of your wealth-building plan. To some degree, they should be restrictive. There are sacrifices that you must make if you are serious about really managing your money and reaching your financial goals. Creating a budget allows you to see how much money you have coming in and going out and helps prevent overspending. If you find yourself halfway through a pay period but clueless about where your money has gone, it’s time to sit down and create a budget.

Dawn Brown, senior financial advisor for Altfest Personal Wealth Management, recommends these steps in preparing your budget:

Step 1: Gather All Financial Documents:

Don’t wing it. Take the time to compile your pay stubs, bank statements, investment accounts, bills, etc. This is an essential step in creating a realistic budget and will help you figure out your monthly averages.

To read more of Black Enterprise’s #WealthForLife tips, click here.

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We hosted our latest Facebook chat with the Double Saving Divas yesterday afternoon and, as always, it was enlightening.

In their latest column, all about “spring cleaning” your financial life, the Divas start with a look back to New Year’s, specifically those New Year’s resolutions. It seems like a long time has passed, but it was only three months ago that we were all looking forward to the goals we were going to achieve in 2013. Take a look back at those financial resolutions and assess how important they still are to you. It’s only April, so there’s plenty of time to get the ball rolling on those goals, or pick up where you left off if you started and stopped.

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Spring is here! We all look forward to the weather getting warmer. Most of us already have our vacations planned and our barbecue gatherings set. But, do you take the time out to Spring clean your finances? Your financial health is just as important as cleaning and purging your home of clutter.

Revisit Your New Year’s Resolutions: Raise your hand if you are still on track with keeping up with your New Year’s resolutions. Anyone? By now most New Year’s resolutions are no more. Everyone starts the year off with every intention of following through. But life happens. Our schedules get hectic and our days fly by. Spring is the perfect time to revisit those promises you made to yourself. Don’t give up. Just pick up where you left off. Attacking your financial goals should be an ongoing task that we always strive to accomplish. Continue to kick debt to the curb!

Clean Out Your Closet: How many times do we buy an item that looks very similar to one we already have? Most times we purchase clothing because our closets are overflowing with items that we cannot find when we need it. Take the time out to go through every piece of clothing you own. If you have not worn the item in at least a year, then it is time to donate it or sell it to make some extra cash. Once you go through all of your clothing, organize the rest of your closet by color and clothing type. Now, you will be able to open your closet doors and immediately see what you have, saving you money before you buy it again. The rest can be donated. And most places where you donate, will give you a charitable donation letter that you can use to claim on next year’s tax return. If you are strapped for cash and want to make a little side money, eBay and Craigslist are great places to sell items. Or have a garage sale! We absolutely, love garage sales. One man’s garbage is truly another man’s treasure.

Request a Free Copy of Your Credit Report: Every 12 months you are allowed to request a free copy of your credit report from all three credit bureaus: Transunion, Experian, and Equifax. We personally use www.annualcreditreport.com, which the FTC recommends to avoid scams and other companies taking advantage of consumers. This is a good practice for finding items on your credit report that are incorrect or fraudulent. Your credit report is vital to your financial health because this is an indicator to lenders of your credit worthiness. Check out the Federal Trade Commissions website for more information.

Review All of Your Insurance Policies: Your insurance needs can change from year to year, so sit down with an agent to go over the policies for things like auto, home, life, and health insurance. You don’t want to be under-insured or over-insured. Check out the article we wrote on how to save on your insurance policies here on MadameNoire.

Reassess Your Budget: Creating a budget should be something that you accomplish every month. However, Spring is a great time to reassess your budget and make sure what you have been doing since January is still working out for you. During the warmer months we all have a tendency to spend more. The kids are in Spring/Summer activities such as camps and swimming. And, let’s not forget about the vacations that cost money too! Be sure you put miscellaneous expenses such as these in your springtime budget.

These are just a few tips to get you ready for your financial Spring cleaning. It is imperative to always keep your finances in tip top shape!

Tai and Tarin Perry, the Double Saving Divas,  are financially savvy identical twin sisters, and investment bankers turned money saving experts. You can also connect with them on their Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube Channel.

Join us on Facebook this Thursday at 3pm where the Divas will be taking your questions on all money-related topics! 

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Lady Gaga still uses coupons at grocery stores and haggles down prices at retail shops. Angela Bassett has been known to flaunt her frugal ways, and let’s not forget Kandi Burruss buying two homes in foreclosure. If these top money makers know the value of saving cash, why not ball on a budget? Forget keeping up with the Joneses. Not only will you refrain from putting a hurting on your wallet, you will also revel in the fact that you just saved some major cash flow. Your paycheck may not be celeb size, but you can live it up baller-style with these super savvy saving techniques. From top savings on clothes to entertainment, there is always a way to shave cents off your purchases here and there. You work hard everyday. Now it’s time to play hard – minus big-time spending.

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How are your finances looking? Have you been sticking to the goals you set at the beginning of the year, or do you find yourself putting it off for the next month? We have all made promises to save a little more and spend a little less, but life can happen, making plans fall to the wayside. Thankfully there are smartphone apps that hold us accountable. Here are ten to keep you on the road to financial freedom.

The Double Saving Divas, Tai and Tarin Perry

Our last Facebook chat with the Double Saving Divas tackled a variety of issues having to do with budgeting, saving, and personal finance. Here’s a quick summary of nine of the topics we tackled.

We host Facebook chats with the Double Saving Divas twice per month. Don’t miss the next one! Besides their regular articles, which appear on the MN Business site, we also send reminders on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to follow us on social media to keep up with the latest!

DC Mayor Vincent Gray. AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

Washington DC’s Democratic Mayor Vincent Gray has committed $100 million to creating or maintaining affordable housing in his city that would benefit seniors, low-income earners, government workers, and others. The funding for this commitment comes from a $417 million surplus for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012, according to The Washington Post. The housing pledge is one of a few that the Mayor made during his State of the District speech on Tuesday.

Housing advocates and others are cautiously optimistic about the pledge, warning that it will take a lot of money and continued diligence to make this happen. And the need is great.

“That’s going to take more than $100 million to accomplish. But $100 million is a good investment toward that goal,” the paper quotes Elizabeth Falcon from the Housing for All nonprofit.

Gray also talked about wage increases for city workers and a proposal for a $15 million fund for nonprofit organizations. The complete text of his speech is available here.

The Mayor held what he called a “citizens summit” last year, in which affordable housing was a huge concern. Housing advocates have said that $20 million, at least, would have to go back to a fund for affordable housing after having been previously diverted for rent supplements. A separate Washington Post story says there’s broad support for the Mayor’s focus on affordable housing.

DC readers: Is affordable housing on your list of top concerns?

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In case you hadn’t noticed on that first check (and we don’t see how you couldn’t have), payroll taxes have gone up. Although there were reasons to cheer the deal that was (finally) struck in Congress a few weeks ago, taxes are still going up. That means it’s time to take another look at your financial accounts and recalibrate how much you have, how much you will have, and how much you can spend.

David Bakke, a writer from Money Crashers, has four tips for staying ahead of the game, even if taxes are taking a bigger bite out of your paycheck. Click through to read on.

They’ve already rung in the new year in Hong Kong. AP Photo/Kin Cheung

We officially ring in the New Year with glasses of champagne, big parties, and perhaps a little naughty behavior. But tomorrow is only January 1. You can’t keep up the party for days on end (unless you can, in which case, invite us and we’ll swing by). But we think the early days of the year should be celebrated as well. After all, the way you bring in the year is the way you’ll spend it.

So we have nine low-cost, fun, yet relaxed ways that you can continue to welcome 2013. These options will clear the mind, bring on the good feelings, and bring the holidays to an end in a great way.