Pretty Sorted CA Drashti Shah

TEMPLATE

The money conversation

Twenty questions for the conversation most households never have. Use them with a partner, with parents, or on your own. An hour, once a year.

Use your browser's print option to put this on paper, or save it as a PDF from the same dialog.

What exists

  1. What do we own, in total, and where is each piece of it?
  2. What do we owe, to whom, and at what rate?
  3. Whose name is each asset in?
  4. Which accounts can each of us operate alone?
  5. Where are the papers, and who else knows?

What happens if

  1. If one of us stopped earning tomorrow, how long could we manage?
  2. If one of us were unavailable, would the other know what to do?
  3. Is there health cover that is not tied to an employer?
  4. Is there life cover, and does the nominee know it exists?
  5. Has either of us made a will?

How we run things

  1. How do we split shared costs, and does that still feel fair?
  2. What can each of us spend without discussing it?
  3. Who actually handles the money, and does the other one want that to change?
  4. If one of us is doing unpaid work at home, whose retirement is growing?
  5. What do we each spend on family outside this household?

Where we are going

  1. What are we saving for, specifically, and by when?
  2. What would we do with a sudden large sum?
  3. What would we do with a sudden large bill?
  4. What is the one money thing we keep putting off?
  5. What will we each do about it before we have this conversation again?

Print two copies and answer separately before comparing. The gaps between the two sets of answers are the entire point of the exercise.

Have a question?

Write to Drashti. Something in the book you would like explained, a question of your own, a bulk order, or a mistake you have spotted. All of it goes to the same place.

drashti@prettysorted.in