The Equifax Foundation is dedicated to helping people Build Financial Capability Because, a single financial opportunity Can change the trajectory of families and communities for generations.

Learn more at Equifax.com/foundation ♪ I've got a brand new feeling - I'm Jacqueline Schadeck, and I'm soon to be your favorite certified financial planner.

♪ And I'm feeling good - My name's Chris Corinthian.

I'm a financial literacy expert and financial coach.

♪ Ready for action - We are a professional powerhouse.

♪ I've got a brand new feeling - [Jacqueline] So I handle the numbers.

- [Chris] And I try to see what is their relationship with money.

- So we meld the two together to give you the most financial empowerment.

♪ And I'm feeling good (upbeat electronic music) - Legacy is the name of the game, right, Chris?

- 100%.

- I'm super excited to meet with this next couple.

They're recently engaged.

They reached out to our team, and we have some details on them.

Should we dive in?

- Let's hear it.

- [Jacqueline] Okay, our next mentee couple is Miss Jasmine and Mr. William.

Jasmine is the head of digital experience and innovation at a tech company, and William is a prolific artist with art all over the US.

- I like how this is adding up.

Seems like we have two different people from two different worlds, right?

- Mmhmm.

- We're meeting with Jacqueline and Chris today, because we got engaged recently, and we're trying to figure out how to combine our finances.

There's a lot of financial things that we need to decide together and think about.

So talking to Jacqueline and Chris is really gonna help us understand these practical things as we combine our finances.

- These are two different thought processes.

Like it takes two different brains, almost two different sides of your brain, to do both of these jobs.

They probably have different thought processes around money too.

Well, I'm ready.

You ready?

- Let's go, let's get it.

- Get it done.

- Hello.

- Hey, how you doing?

- Hi.

- Hi, I'm Jacqueline.

- Hi, Jacqueline.

- Jasmine, looks like she's excited to meet us, and on the other hand, William, - Was a little more timid.

- was a little more hesitant about what's going on, what am I getting ready to do?

- But our job is to be able to break through.

So let's see what we can do.

So newlyweds, - Yes.

- what are the future plans for after the wedding?

- Well, one of the things we've been talking more about lately is buying a house.

The reality is if I wanted to buy a house today on my own, I could do it.

- Oh, wow, okay, okay.

- So for me, it's also a psychological thing.

I'm like trying to shift my mindset from being in this really individualistic space to, okay, like if we do something like this, it has to be together.

I want it to be something that we do together.

- But I've never had that structure before, ever.

So with Jasmine, it's been a new thing that I'm learning how to be a part of.

- Yeah, I love that you guys are acknowledging that, because it's so important that you're working as compliments to each other.

Speaking the language of money, we wanna get fluent in speaking finance.

- Yes.

- I think it helps to bring in a third party, and I feel like we're having a hard time breaking through as a couple, not that we don't communicate or don't attempt to, but we're having a hard time finding our shared language.

Finances are funny, because we have very different feelings about talking about finances.

We come from similar backgrounds in terms of how we were raised with our parents and money.

So I think that helps us be on the same page naturally.

Growing up, money was a really difficult thing for me, because my parents worked in a factory, and money was always super tight.

So most of my experience with money was listening to them argue about how we didn't have enough of it.

- I grew up with two parents that work every day, both work, either first shift or third shift.

They taught me and my brother that we needed to have a job, but they didn't tell us how to structure our money so much, because they didn't really have the conversation with me and my brother about finances.

- Just having to talk about money so much with work, I got really used to it, and it's just something I've grown to feel really comfortable with.

- Good.

- Whereas William maybe doesn't have those same kinds of experiences or feelings.

- Well, I'm an artist.

So artists don't really like talking about money unless they're getting it.

So that's always been like this kind of undercurrent in my life of being an artist.

- If Jasmine and William don't get on the same page about money, one, it could lead to divorce.

It also could lead to a higher tax bill for them, because I've seeing couples who get to retirement, and they are doing everything the same roommate style they've always been doing it, and it causes them to have a higher tax bill.

- I wanna learn from you guys.

So whatever you cook up, let's do it.

- Yes, I can't wait.

- Okay.

- Well, this has been great.

Thank you so much for having us.

We have plenty to go devise a plan, and we should get to work.

- Absolutely, great.

(laughs) - I can't wait.

This has been amazing, guys.

- I've been advising for a little over a decade now, and one of the hardest things to do is to get two individuals on the same page about money.

- Jacqueline.

- Hi.

- How you doing?

- Good, how are you?

- Good, good, you got a minute?

- I do.

- All right, you know what I want to talk about?

- Mm, maybe Jasmine and William?

- Maybe Jasmine and William is correct.

It seems like they have different vantage points when it comes to money.

- The topic of money is taboo, and the reason why that is is because people like to attach a value of a human to their numerical value, their net worth, and we get those two conflated all the time.

I'm looking forward to helping them understand what it means to actually join their finances together, because I've seen a lot of couples who will get married, and they don't exactly understand the process of joining their finances.

- 100%, I can remember when I first got married, you know, my wife was the saver, real conservative when it came to money and I was the spender.

Like as soon as the money came in, I was spending it.

Another thing that they talked about is getting a house.

So I really have some things that I wanna work with them as far as what are their plans.

Are they really serious about it?

And if they are, they need to set themselves up properly.

I like what you're doing, and I think that's gonna feed right into what I'm working on.

- Let me get to working on it.

- [Chris] All right, sounds good.

See you later.

Pow pow.

(upbeat rock music) - As much as I wanna be the fun friend today, I can't be the fun friend.

I've gotta ask Jasmine the hard questions.

- Hi, Jacqueline.

- I think this is something that she wants to really put her heart into, and I'm hoping that I can help connect the dots for her financially and exactly what's holding up their communication about finances.

I have a few high level questions for you to get to know you better financially.

- Sure.

- Tell me a little bit about your salary at the tech company.

- Yeah, so my annual salary is at 170.

- Any credit cards, car loans, anything out there debt-wise?

- Nothing outstanding.

- So you're very structured with your finances?

- Yes, very much debt free.

It freaks me out.

So I did everything I could to get away from it and stay away from it.

- While we're talking about numbers high level, do you know William's, since he's not here right now, about his income, debts, and assets?

- I wish I knew more.

I've tried to talk to him a little bit about it without pressuring him too much.

I know his income varies a lot, because he's getting income from selling art, from doing art installations.

He does a ton of workshops and educational stuff.

So it's very much freelancing contract work.

As far as I know, he doesn't have any debts.

- Ignorance is not a bliss when it comes to your finances.

What you don't know definitely will hurt you.

Every couple is different when it comes to talking about their finances.

The best thing that you can do is create a framework.

So how will you and your partner communicate about money?

Start with the questions about your goals, to make sure you guys are on the same page, your income, your debts, and exactly where you're trying to go in the future.

So financially, there's a pretty big difference between the two of you, at least as it stands now.

- Yeah.

- And so how do you feel about that?

- I feel all right with it.

William's pretty good at saving.

So I definitely trust him in that sense that I know he's not ignoring it.

He pays attention to it.

He just has a different way of looking at it than I do.

I think for me as a woman going into this and having a larger income than William on an annual basis, one of my fears is just kind of letting go of this idea that that money's not all mine anymore and just getting comfortable with that.

I don't have a lot of examples in my life of people that I can talk to for advice about this stuff.

So I think a big fear for me is just diving into the unknown.

- So as you guys are coming together as a couple, it sounds like we need to figure out which account types you need to have so that you can create this funnel so it can be pretty well automated.

- That would be amazing.

- My suggestion is for Jasmine and William to have a joint account for their banking, a joint account for their investing, and then to each have an IRA and each have a Roth so that they can be taking advantage of all the investment opportunities available.

So you have your current bank account, and he has his current bank account, which are separate.

What the ideal would be for you guys to work together collaboratively would be to have your current bank accounts created into a joint account.

This would be the account where you handle all of the household bills, anything that you guys tackle collectively.

- Perfect.

- Now from their joint account, they can then give themselves an allowance, so to speak, into their own personal accounts.

That way they can spend on the things that they wanna spend on without having to ask for the other person's permission.

Not having to ask for your spouse's permission but still being transparent about your spending is going to help you have better communication when it comes to your finances.

So ideally, all cash flows into the joint account from your job and from any of his activities, and then from there, you guys can decide what percentage you would give yourselves as allowance every month or every paycheck, and then you'll have that cash available to you.

You'll also have a joint savings account as well.

So that will handle your personal banking.

- Okay.

- Just like you can have your joint bank account, you can also have a joint investment account.

So it's like a savings account, but you can actually buy investments available on the market in there, stocks, bonds, mutual funds.

You also wanna have your retirement accounts, and every retirement account that you have is going to be attached specifically to your own social security number.

So while we're joining their finances and there are some accounts that they can have collectively, there are still going to be other accounts that need to maintain their individualism.

How do you feel about these?

Do you think they're gonna work for you?

- Oh yeah, I think this will work really well.

I think it's gonna help us just get organized, have some more shared spaces to put things, and also, it sounds like it can help us automate some things and make it a lot easier, a little less work for both of us.

- Good.

- What's interesting about this process is it's helping me realize that I think what we actually needed was a third party, like a neutral third party.

I think as we progress with Jacqueline and Chris, we're gonna get way more comfortable, because we'll have some shared vocabulary, we'll have a shared plan, and I think it'll be really great.

- And you think William will be open to this?

- So one thing I wanted to ask you about, I think maybe you picked up on it yesterday, but William is a little less comfortable talking about finances, but I would love if you have any advice or information on how to go about that and how to engage in a more effective way, because I think it's gonna be really, really important for us moving forward.

- Yeah, I could tell there was a little bit of hesitancy for you guys to have that conversation.

So I was thinking about ways that you could work together on this, and I think what could be really helpful for you guys is having a money date.

- Okay.

- The money date can be one of the most effective tools for a couple to get and also stay on the same page about their finances.

This is pretty simple.

You and your partner agree to a date and time, typically at least once a month, where you're going to get together and have a date, but during this date, you're also going to talk through your money.

Setting this up as a date is a really great way to take some of the edge off of the conversation but also the fear if you do have one partner who is a little bit more trepidatious in this conversation.

So I actually have a kit for you - Okay, perfect.

- so that you guys can easily discuss these money questions, and every time you guys meet, you'll just sit down and talk through these things briefly.

It can be as short as a 15 minute date, or it can be as long as you guys want it to be.

- Perfect, I love it.

This will be a really, really useful tool for us.

To be totally honest, it's pretty on brand for me to do something like bring a worksheet on a date, but if I would have proposed that, William might've laughed in my face and brushed it off, but because it's coming from some certified professionals, I think William will enjoy it.

- Sounds like you guys are gonna really be on the same page, sounds like you're on board.

- I think so, yes.

I think it's gonna be good.

We have more of a structure, just some tools we can use to help guide the conversation.

- Exactly, just a few tools.

- Yes, so thank you so much for everything today.

- Absolutely, I'm so glad you could make it in.

- It was so great to meet with you.

I appreciate everything, yes.

- Thanks for coming in.

- I'm excited to go home and talk to William tonight.

He's gonna be so eager to hear everything we talked about today, and I can't wait to tell him some of the things that are coming and continue in this process with Jacqueline and Chris.

(upbeat rock music) - One of the things that Jasmine and William shared was that they want to possibly get a home one day.

Welcome, welcome.

But if they're gonna do this, they want to do it the right way.

So we have Brandon here, and he's a mortgage lender, and he's gonna be able to share with William and Jasmine all the ins and outs of what it takes to actually get a mortgage and some of the ongoing costs.

This is where we're gonna ask all the questions that you may have about buying a home.

He's a wiz when it comes to everything about the home-buying process.

- So as a mortgage loan officer, what I do is I help people prepare to buy a home.

I make sure we find them the right loan product with the right monthly payment and the right amount of down payment and closing costs.

So, great, we would love to answer a lot of questions.

So what questions do you guys have to get started?

- I guess if you could talk about the types of loans we need to start with maybe, perhaps.

- Absolutely, so there's lots of different programs.

So we've got FHA, we've got conventional, we've got VA loans for veterans and active military, and also USDA loans.

There's several other types of loans, but those are the main ones we see for first time home buyers.

Ideally, you guys want to be on the mortgage together, is that right?

- That's one of the questions we had.

- We were gonna figure that out.

- Yeah, - We need to - as like what will make sense.

- See what the options are and what's a good idea.

- Yeah, and so we can do the loan in two people's names.

You guys don't have to be married to be on the mortgage together.

- Okay.

- Okay.

- And so when we are looking to determine which one's gonna be the best fit, the biggest thing is a credit score.

So tell me a little bit about y'all's credit score.

So Will, we'll start with you.

(inquisitive electronic music) - Is around 690-700.

- 690-700, okay, great.

Jasmine, what yourself?

- It's 800.

- Awesome, so she got you beat.

You got some work cut out for you.

(Chris laughs) (William exhales) - We're a team, we're a team.

- Absolutely, and then when we've got more than one person, we go with the lowest of the two scores.

So if you're at 800 and you're at 700, then we're gonna have to qualify based on that lower score.

Sometimes it's a big difference, sometimes it's not, and so we will look at those scenarios and see which one's gonna be the best.

- When people think about mortgages, they think that this is an impossible venture.

They don't know what it entails, what it's about, and the proper steps.

It's really much more simple than people expect it to be.

Now is there a percentage of how much they bring in each month that they should allocate toward a mortgage?

- Great question, and so Chris, I encourage people to really figure out what that number is monthly.

Now as far as guidelines and qualifications, what we do is we look at the gross monthly income, and for most loan programs, we can take no more than 50% of your gross monthly income.

- One of the conversations we've been having is should we go on the lower end and think of this as a starter home?

- And what about if we got the house and decide to build a studio in the back?

- This sounds like it's another kind of long-term relationship we would enter into.

- One thing I love to see is that Jasmine and William are both asking amazing questions about this process.

This shows me that they're, number one, getting on the same page when it comes to this process, and number two, I love that William is opening up and talking about the possibilities when it comes to money and mortgage.

Was this helpful?

- Awesome, yes.

- Yes, oh, definitely.

- Okay, great, we got a lot to think about, right?

- A lot to discuss.

- A lot to think about, lots of things to debrief on.

- Yes.

- All of the answers that Brandon is giving me is making me feel very comfortable.

I'm excited about the big purchase of a home.

I never thought that I was able to do that until now.

So I'm excited.

- It's kind of opening up my imagination a little bit.

So I'm starting to feel really excited about dreaming up this new phase of our lives together.

(upbeat electronic music) Today, we're going on our little money date.

I'm really pumped to update William on everything, because I left the conversation with Jacqueline buzzing and excited, and it kind of kickstarted a lot of ideas.

- Speaking of our lives, tell me about the other day with your appointment.

- She gave a lot of good advice, and she also gave this little tool.

- Ooh, the green.

I love it, I love it.

- Yes, so she gave this financial check-in worksheet.

It's just kind of a set of questions that we can use to help guide our conversation.

- Okay.

- Okay, let's just go top to bottom and see what we feel.

- [William] Okay.

- Okay, what should our monthly budget be?

Wow, coming out with a hard one.

- Ooh, that's starting wild.

- Let's come back to that one.

I feel like we should do that.

- Yeah, that should be at the bottom.

(laughs) - Let's go from the bottom to the top.

- Let's do that.

- Let's do that, okay.

- I think that's a good idea.

- Okay, how can we support each other financially and emotionally?

So, you know me.

I'm paranoid and full of anxiety about money.

So the one thing that I feel like I need more emotionally is just gonna be understanding your income a little bit better.

- Oh yeah.

- I think part of that will just come naturally if we combine our accounts, because like I'll be able to just see it going - Look at it, yeah, exactly.

- and know.

- And for me, I feel nervous to share that.

- Why do you feel nervous to share it?

- I don't know.

It's a thing that you don't really talk about as an artist or as a person when you're dating people.

You never think about, oh, we're dating.

Let's merge our money together.

You see what I'm saying?

- Okay, yeah.

- So it's that.

So this is a new phase where those things are very important.

So for me, I have to not be uncomfortable and know that we're in a unit, we're in a commitment together.

So everything is combined and.

- Yeah, it's a judgment-free zone, like we've gone this far.

I've already agreed to marry you.

- I know.

- Like there's nothing you're gonna show me or tell me that's gonna shock me.

- I know.

- So I've got nothing to worry about, okay?

- Yeah, I'm not worried.

I think with this whole structure, it's gonna help me show and talk about it, and for myself, build my goals with your goals and think about the long run when I'm thinking about moving forward.

- What are our current financial goals for the year?

- The wedding.

(Jasmine chuckles) - Yes, that is definitely - I think - the biggest one.

- that's the big one.

- No question that's the biggest one.

Maybe we get some of the big post-its again, and we can put 'em up on the wall, like the thermometer with the goal.

- Yeah, all that stuff.

- Oh yeah, just turn it into a fundraiser situation.

- Exactly, I need that.

I think that would be fun and keep me excited about-- - Did down say fun and excited related to money?

One of my favorite things about William is that he still surprises me constantly.

So if this is something that will help us make it feel more comfortable and more natural part of our relationship, then I think it will be a great tool for us.

So William?

- Yes, Jasmine?

- I just wanted to say thank you and express my gratitude for agreeing to go through this process and have these conversations with me.

- I mean, we're gonna be a unit.

So for me, that's exciting, and I want to grow financially and stack money and have fun, you know?

- All right, that's a motto to live by, I would say.

- Just know that this is something that is very important for our growth and our unit as a team.

- Yes, yes, yes, we're gonna do it.

It's gonna be amazing.

- Wooh, yes.

- I can't wait.

(upbeat rock music) - Oh wow.

(group talks over each other) - This is awesome.

- Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

- [Jacqueline] Where are we?

- We're at Sandler Hudson Gallery.

- We're in the gallery and looking around, and I'm thinking, wow, there's so many artists here.

Which one is William?

And come to find out it's all William's art.

(upbeat electronic music) - This is a collection of drawings that have been with me in the making for about a year, and this is my solo show called A Wave Touched a Cloud.

That's the title of the whole group.

- I like it.

- Thank you.

- I like it a lot.

- Thank you, thank you.

- This is fantastic.

So we gave you guys some homework.

- Yes.

- Were you able to do it?

- Yes.

- Yes.

- Okay.

- We did it.

We did it, we did it.

- Tell us about it.

- Yeah, so we got together.

We had a little money date.

We went through the-- - A big money date.

- A big money date.

- A big money date.

(everyone laughs) Yeah, you're right.

You're right.

It was a big money date.

- Heavy on the big, right?

- Lot's of big money.

- Gigantic.

- Yes, so your plan and your worksheet that you gave us was really, really helpful.

- Helpful, and amazing.

- Good.

- William even enjoyed it and he said he was having fun.

So that was huge.

So kudos to you.

- Good, yeah.

- Good, good.

- It was a really good tool to just help get the conversation flowing, and I think it really helped us start digging into some of those details that were tough to get into before.

- Yeah, very tough.

- Yes.

- Good.

- [Jasmine] So we're feeling pretty good.

- Good, so your biggest takeaway was the ability to have more open conversations around money?

- And structure.

- Structure, good, good.

- Like your questions were really great, because those are like a springboard into my mind to kind of think about our big picture and the goals that we have with our money and what we're trying to do with it so.

- Yeah, I think it helped zoom out a little bit.

Sometimes when I go to talk to William about money, I just jump right into the details, and it's a little too much.

So I think it helped.

Yeah, it helped us focus on the important things and just gave us some really good starting points.

It was really a huge, huge step forward for us and makes me feel so prepared and like even more excited to marry you and get together, yeah.

(everyone laughs) - That part, right?

And the marriage, right?

That's great.

That was our number one goal, right?

Our thing was trying to get you all on the same page as far as the communication, a strategy on what you wanted to tackle, what you wanted to approach, and how you were gonna approach it, and it seems like you all have a good start to a successful strategy.

- Definitely, exactly.

- Exactly.

- So this whole process from beginning to end has, in a way, make me grow up as a financial person.

The beginning, I was really nervous and afraid and bashful and tense, because we had to talk about money and budgets and credit, and at the end of this whole experience, I am a changed person.

- And the thing that surprised me most was how exciting it felt.

It felt like a world of possibility opened up because of that, and I think that that is a really special gift that we received from going through this process, and I feel more excited than ever to go into this next phase of life with William.

- And that's kind of some of the beauty of working on your finances, and so to see you guys get to do this collectively and join together, we couldn't be more proud of you and more excited - thank you, thank you, - for your financial journey.

- thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

- But while we're here, you mind walking us through a few of your pieces?

- Yes.

(bright orchestra music) - Well, I don't mean to toot our own horn, but looks like we have our first successful couple in the books.

- This is huge.

Just seeing them talk about money, seeing William smile about the conversation of money is totally different from when we first met him.

- It's just proof that we really can support each other in our journeys and help us get to success.

Find more My Money Mentors financial advice, tools and resources at MyMoneyMentorsShow.com The Equifax Foundation is dedicated to helping people Build Financial Capability Because, a single financial opportunity Can change the trajectory of families and communities for generations.

Learn more at Equifax.com/foundation - [Announcer] W-A-B-E.