One of the things that many of the wives I interviewed for the book were very good at that I still struggle with is managing family finances.  I've never been a budgeter, a coupon cutter, or a bargain shopper as my girlfriends can all attest.  Yet many successful men told me that one of the things they most appreciated about their wives while they were climbing up the ladder was how she was able to keep the family living within its means.  As these husbands explained, it wasn't just a matter of saving money (though that undoubtedly helped too) it was a matter of alleviating the mental and emotional distress of money problems.  Because these men’s minds weren’t distracted by immediate worries of how they were going to pay their bills or climb out of debt, they were free to focus on future goals and how to achieve them.

Now, obviously, in tough economic times like these some financial pain can be impossible to avoid and both spouses bear the responsibility of being good stewards of their money together.  But statistics show that women make the vast majority of the purchasing decisions in the house.  We decide how much to spend and on what, and the decisions we make can have a direct impact on how much attention our husbands are able to give to pursuing the brass ring in their chosen fields.

This is particularly relevant for those of us wives who, whether because we’re full-time moms or because our jobs are more flexible, spend more time at home than our husbands.  It only makes sense that we would take on the task of  setting and sticking to a responsible budget.  So one of only a few resolutions I've made this year is to change my free-spending ways. I’ve joined the Grocery Game to cut our food bills, created a budget Dave Ramsey would be proud of, and pledged to my husband that I will take on the responsibility of making his life easier by making our money go farther.  Anyone else want to join me?