Be Your Own Board of Directors

Posted On 20 April 2020

Last updated on April 10th, 2024

The concept of a marriage being likened to a board of directors came to me years before I even met my wife. When I was 21, I was voted onto the board of directors of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Laramie, Wyoming. At the time, I was the youngest board member in the state! Being a member of the board was a great learning experience for me.

This past winter my wife and I celebrated 20 years of marriage. It’s amazing how fast the time flies! I write from my perspective – It’s what I know best! While this post is directed to married people, the idea can also be applied to those who are single, planning on getting married, common law, or living together as a couple.

For those who are single, you can still apply this concept. You can either work by yourself, sitting down and being intentional about your finances. You could also find yourself an accountability partner and you can help each other. This could be a parent, sibling, or roommate. Just make sure your accountability partner is someone you trust, and they should also want to improve their finances.

Your Board of Directors

Your board of directors will most likely only have two members. One of those directors will need to be the chairman of the board. In our house, that person is me. The chairman does not have any more privileges than the other member. I am the one responsible for leading the group. It is the chairman’s responsibility to make sure that the meetings are happening, the board is staying on track, and the couple is moving in the right direction.

It is important to note that all the members on the board have equal say in all the matters. An effective board of directors cannot be a dictatorship. Any board member can bring items to the table. Items brought up are discussed and must be agreed upon.

Working with Your Partner

In order to work with your partner as a board member, you both must bring your thoughts, concerns, and desires to the table. The other person must listen to those ideas. Both people must bring ideas, and both people must listen.

Meetings should be conducted weekly. They don’t have to be formal, and they are not a business expense! My wife and I often have these meetings on “Date Night”. We will go out to eat while the kids stay at home. We get some time without kids, discuss important family matters, and enjoy each other’s company, while having a tasty meal.

We will periodically record our expenses in order to track our spending. I wrote a post about that here. This can be a great exercise to do to make sure that we are both treating money similarly.

Be on the Same Page

When there is an environment which encourages each person to communicate their wants, desires, and needs to each other, the couple can effectively move in the same direction. The couple can establish some common goals that they can work on together. Treating each other as a member of the board of directors brings the relationship to a whole new level.

Now, not everything needs to be done together. Each spouse may have their own profession, business, and projects that they work on. The trick is to have the full support of you spouse, and to support your spouse in their endeavors.

We don’t always agree with each other. A couple years into our marriage we agreed that it would be great to add another spouse. Just think … another source of income … more help around the house … We just could never agree on the gender of that additional spouse! (It still hasn’t happened.)

Consult with Each Other

Sometimes I will hear people say, “I need to get permission from the boss, first.” That has never made sense to me! Both spouses should be equals. My wife and I consult with each other about major purchases ($100 or more) before we make them. Neither my wife nor I ask the other for permission before making a major purchase. We discuss it with each other, and we must both agree, before we make a purchase

Acting as a board of directors is important to make sure that the other person hasn’t forgotten about something that is more important or must be paid instead of making that purchase. This process also keeps us working toward the same goals. Timing & planning are essential if we are going to get the most value out of our money.

Work Together as an Interdependent Team

When I was a teenager, a friend of the family passed away. His death devastated his wife. They had done everything together and he was the one who took care of all the finances. After he passed away, not only did she have to deal with the pain and grief of losing her spouse, she did not know how the financial aspects of life worked! That made a big impression on me.

I vowed that when I got married, that I would make sure that my wife would know how to run things if something were to happen to me. My wife knows how manage such things as our banking, insurance, vehicle registration, and telecommunications. Should something happen to me, my wife knows how our finances work because we work together as a team.

We are an interdependent team, with each of us having strengths that the other does not have. We depend on each other, yet we can manage things independently.

I strongly recommend all my readers to treat their spouse as a fellow member on their board of directors. It encourages teamwork to achieve our goals. We build a stronger relationship when we communicate and trust each other. This is one of the things to which I credit our lasting marriage.