“Reason respects the differences, and imagination the similitude of things.” – Percy Bysshe Shelley

I’ve always heard that the family that saves together stays together. In the Southwest Airlines magazine this month, Kris Frieswick writes about how to get both people of a marriage or partnership interested and involved in the finances.

She writes, “Experts say that couples who work together seem to be in better financial condition than couples in which one spouse shoulders the load.” She gives an example of Josh Estrin and his boyfriend, Luis Perez and how they ignored their differences with regards to finances.

As an aside, it’s nice to see a company like Southwest and its magazine use a gay couple as an example in the article. It validates the existence of queer partnerships when mainstream companies like Southwest treat our relationships as normal.

These two men are typical of any marriage in America where one person is driving the financial car and the other is just a passive passenger.

“Experts say that it’s vital that both parties participate, even if one doesn’t feel qualified, entitled, or interested. People in a relationship may have very different long-term goals, and even if the goals are aligned, they may have very different ideas about how to get there. Failure to include both viewpoints can lead to big problems in a relationship as well as a bad financial plan.”

I’ve talked about this a few times in regards to my own relationships: past and present. Catch them here and here.