Finances are one of the leading causes of divorce in the United States - or more likely the lack of finances. It is amazing how something as simple as math can cause such a rift in a relationship. It happened in our home recently.

We were blessed to receive a small sum of money that we were not expecting and we put it into our savings account. Due to a number of equally unexpected costs the sum of money is now gone.

My husband had the following question about our emergency funds of the future:

‘How do I know that future money will be left alone unless there is an emergency and not spent on things like there wasn’t enough money coming in to pay the bills?’

I began to understand that math was not the only problem but that the English language was causing some of the trouble. My husband and I have different understandings of what an emergency is. I think it IS and emergency if you don’t have enough money to pay your bills. I’m still not sure WHAT his definition is.

The one thing that I did learn from our discussion is that we have to work on communication. Maybe finances aren’t the real problem in marriages but it is actually the inability to discuss the finances so that everyone understands the path that lies ahead.