Making any big investment decision shouldn’t be taken lightly, which is why it’s important to be on the same page with your spouse when it comes to finances.
Every person develops a different internal money story and feelings about spending, saving, and investing habits based on childhood and other life experiences. This is why one spouse may be open and adventurous, and the other may be risk-averse.
Making decisions about your financial strategy together is an important part of your relationship, which is an important component of your life.
This article will give you a behind-the-scenes sneak peek into the story of one of our Street Smart Investor Club members and how she helped her husband get on board with the idea of investing passively in real estate syndications.
Julie’s story
When I first learned about investing in apartment syndications, my husband and I were, fortunately, on the same page about most personal subjects, and among them, personal finances.
This is largely because I’d spent months spreadsheeting our entire financial life during my spare time and had our family’s income and balance sheet tracked to the penny. Our plan was for me to stay home with the kids, so it was important for us to budget toward that lifestyle.
Beyond my dedication to Excel, we talk about money frequently in an effort to plan for the future we both want, where we can go on vacations often, for example. For us, it’s not just about creating additional cash flow each month, but also to accelerate our wealth building so we aren’t tied to my husband’s salary.
We dreamed of him moving on to a less stressful job – to enjoying life more. Can’t you just imagine the smile on his face when he thinks of this?
When our daughter began preschool at a steep price tag every month (thousands!), we were spurred into action. Our existing investments needed to create cash flow.
I spent hours educating myself about real estate syndications and I think my husband was impressed and maybe inspired by my dedication and drive to learn. Each night I’d pop in earbuds after the kids went to bed so I could listen to Bigger Pockets and other real estate podcasts while folding laundry. He also saw me pouring over blog posts, crunching numbers, and constantly on the phone with people from whom I could learn.
Each time I learned something mind-blowing, I’d stop right away and share it with him. That helped him learn alongside me and to trust what I would soon present as my master plan. I wanted him to see that I’d done extensive research and analysis toward generating passive income from group investments and that this was no split-decision.
My husband is more risk-averse than I am, so he had a lot of questions. It was a great exercise for both of us to learn about capital preservation, buffering for market risk, and liquidity.
We were able to take time pondering our risk tolerance and developing a deeper understanding of real estate syndications. Although I have plenty of autonomy, we talk about what we’re doing with our money before it happens, so he’s comfortable with our journey and investments.
He knows we’re in this together and neither party gets to “blame” the other for things that go wrong, because we both had ample opportunities throughout the process to ask questions, express concerns, and talk through risk factors.
So far, here are the main highlights of our investing journey:
- We stay motivated by dreaming together about what investing can do for
- Using real dollar amounts in our projections has helped us to truly see how we can take out lives to the next level and understand the changes we have to make to get
- I’ve been able to earn credibility as a solid investment partner throughout the process by committing to research, education, and vetting the choices
- Consistent and frequent communication is key to staying on the same page and truly sharing our successes and failures along the
Conclusion and Takeaways
Passive investing is now a big part of Julie and her husband’s financial strategy and the passive income they’ve built has helped them defy the extremely high cost of living in their city.
Julie was so open and transparent about their financial journey toward apartment syndications, and it’s clear she took the lead while making sure to keep her husband in the loop every step of the way.
A valuable snippet of her story is where she’d stop and share mind-blowing facts with her husband immediately. Those moments of excitement and discovery can serve to not only learn together but invigorate your relationship overall.
Real estate investing is not a race, nor is it something that should be a point of contention in your relationship. Planning your finances and dreaming about your future should be an adventure you both WANT to take together. Plan for ample time to learn and grow together, have fun during the process, and you’ll be a passive income power couple in no time!
