Omega19x: The door to Stephanie Roth's office is open, and the soon to be married couple walk on in.
Omega19x: "Hello, Ryou and Malik. How are you two doing today?"
Omega19x: "... pretty good. The wedding's going to be here before we know it!"
ph33r my rod: "Yeah! We've already got the invitations sent out."
Omega19x: "... You should probably get yours at the beginning of the week." Ryou smiled. "You are invited."
Omega19x: "Thank you very much. I'll try my best to attend.":
Omega19x: "Let's get started on going over your homework assignment, shall we?" she moved on. "Now, for most of us, financial concerns are something that will make a big impact on your future life, but it's not something most people communicate openly about. These questions were designed to get you started on thinking about some of the money matters that will come up for you."
Omega19x: "You two have been living together for a while, so some of these may have already come up. What did you put for the first question. Do you have a budget?"
ph33r my rod: "I think we use our money pretty well, yeah."
Omega19x: "We... we don't really write it down, though."
Omega19x: "do you talk about where your money goes?"
ph33r my rod: "I guess if we're worried about it... it's not usually the case." Malik shrugged. "We make ends meet, and try not to make big expenditures very often, so we've yet to have any real problems with it."
Omega19x: "Ah. Big expenditures. That can be a loaded term. It's important that each person knows what the other defines as a big expenditure, and how you decide to make them."
Omega19x: "Malik, what would you consider a major purchase to be?"
ph33r my rod: "... Something that either costs a lot of money being paid at once, or something that would take a long time to pay off. The latter not quite as much, but... yeah."
Omega19x: "How much money is 'a lot of money' to you?"
ph33r my rod: Malik scratched his head. He'd had kind of a hard time with this section. "I don't really know, but stuff like cars, expensive trips, and things like that... those kinda fall into that category."
Omega19x: "So, around 200,000 yen and beyond that?"
ph33r my rod: Malik nodded.
Omega19x: "Okay. Ryou, what did you put down?"
Omega19x: "um... I kinda wrote that it'd be anything that's a lot more than what we'd pay normally out of pocket. Even... um... things that are 25,000 yen..."
Omega19x: "Ah, that's quite different. Have you discussed major purchases together in the past?"
ph33r my rod: "Not really... I know we've had a few major purchases, but for some reason the topic never really comes up."
ph33r my rod: (( That reason is called a "plot hole". ;D ))
Omega19x: "Yeah... and big purcahses that we've made on a whim... well, I think the biggest one was when I bought Malik a new motorcycle. And it was a surprise..."
Omega19x: "Ah. Well, before you make those kind of surprises in the future, make sure to communicate openly about them. One technique that works well is to set aside a special fund in your budgeting each month for 'future surprises.' That way, the money will be there, and each of you know what you have available to surprise the other."
Omega19x: "Say, set aside 2-5% each month, and that will accumulate."
ph33r my rod: Malik nodded and looked at Ryou. "That sounds like something we could do, yeah?"
Omega19x: "That sounds like a great idea!"
ph33r my rod: (( Akjdfhsaldlf TAR be back later ))
Omega19x: (commercials?)
ph33r my rod: (( Possibly but I'll probably be too far gone into fangirl-land. ))
Omega19x: (rofl)
ph33r my rod: (( *back* ))
Omega19x: (hey_
Omega19x: (where were we?)
ph33r my rod: (( Talking about budgeting stuff for future surprises. ))
Omega19x: "That's a very good idea."
Omega19x: "With careful budgeting, you can be sure that you meet all your needs, and have money left over to do some of the things you want to do."
Omega19x: Have you thought about how much will you set aside in savings?"
Omega19x: "As in savings that you don't touch yet - saving for things like retirement, or if you begin a family, a child's education. Things like that."
Omega19x: "Um... I'd like to put aside at least 5%... More if we can afford it. You never know when you need it. I... I was glad my parents had saved so that... that I could pay for a lot of my medical bills... when I needed them."
ph33r my rod: Malik nodded. "Yeah... five to ten percent sounds like a good amount."
Omega19x: Ryou nodded.
Omega19x: "That sounds reasonable." Dr. Roth added. "Make sure when you make a financial plan, whatever it is, that it's something you can stick with."
Omega19x: "That both of you can stick with."
Omega19x: "Another topic of concern for a lot of couples is life insurance. That's so that if the unspeakable happens, and one of you isn't here, that the other will be taken care of financially. You two are both young, but Ryou, you've brought up medical issues in the past. It might be something worth discussing."
Omega19x: "It's difficult to plan for unfortunate events, especially with a wedding just around the corner, but we have to consider them."
ph33r my rod: "...yeah." Malik looked at Ryou. They both knew that anything could happen, especially since it was Ryou.
Omega19x: "Do either of the companies you work for provide life insurance?"
Omega19x: "Um... Since Creamylicious is small... my partner can't offer... um... too much. He's trying to grow the business so that we'd have at least our salaries covered. Maybe in the future..."
Omega19x: "Malik, does the motorcycle shop you work at provide insurance?"
ph33r my rod: "It's... pretty small, so I doubt it."
Omega19x: "It is possible to get life insurance outside of work too. I'll have my assistant pull out some flyers of various companies and their policies so that you can look through it when you have more time. And you can set the plan up so that if one of you passed away, the other would receive everything, or if you have children or other loved ones that you care for, you can include them as beneficiaries too."
Omega19x: Ryou nodded. He wanted to include his yami in that somehow. He'd have to talk to Malik about what would be a fair percentage later.
ph33r my rod: (( brb food ))
ph33r my rod: (( back ))
Omega19x: (its your move)
ph33r my rod: Malik nodded. "Okay... we'll definitely check that out."
Omega19x: "The keys to a good financial future together is planning together and communicating openly about your purchases and savings."
Omega19x: Ryou nodded. That didn't seem too hard. They'd done well so far.
Omega19x: "Gosh, that's all the time we have today."
Omega19x: "We only have a couple of sessions left before we're done. And because it's so important, we're going to focus on communication for the next too sessions."
Omega19x: "The next section of questions you've been given is on verbal communication. I want you to answer each question yes or no for yourself, and then answer them as you think your perspective partner would answer. Okay?"
ph33r my rod: Malik nodded. "Alright." This shouldn't be too hard.
Omega19x: "And by writing down what you think the other will say, it will be a good test to see how well you've been verbally communicating with each other."
Omega19x: Ryou again nodded. "Okay. I can do that."
Omega19x: "Then I'll see you boys back next week, how's that?" she smiled. "And don't forget to pick up some phamplets on financial matters from my assistant when you head out."
ph33r my rod: "Okay. We'll definitely do that."
Omega19x: "Thanks, Dr. Roth! See you next week!"
Omega19x: (there we go)
Omega19x: (by the end of this, we should know the 2 great secrets of a happy marriage - open communication and cream puffs.)
ph33r my rod: (( Yep. XD ))