Better Together with Mint: I can have my cake & eat it, too!

I'm getting married in June, and I was always nervous about having a big money talk with my fiancée, Michael, but talking about finances with your man does not need to be hard or embarrassing!

Today I’m partnering with Mint, a personal finance app, to share what I personally use to manage my money and stress when it comes to planning our wedding. Whether you’re newly engaged, married, or making plans to move in with your significant other – there’s no time like the present to discuss your financial goals and plans to reach those goals.

Money is the number ONE thing couples fight about, so take control and make it a non-issue right from the beginning. Mint made that conversation very easy. Michael and I now team up to take on shared payments by having an account together and a shared a credit card.

Like a true #bosslady, I started the new year setting real financial goals. For those of you who live the freelance life (aka no steady paychecks!), you may already know how important it is to keep on top of your finances, but to share your financial situation and to share expenses for the first time with someone else can be extremely stressful.

First, you want to make sure you’re not in debt. When it comes to managing money, women are not as independent as you'd expect. While I like to think that gender stereotypes are a thing of the past, a Fidelity study found that of millennial women in relationships only 11% admit to taking control of their financial future.

Second, you want to make sure that the person you’re with is not in debt, or that they are in control of their debt, and you both need to have clear expectations about money management.

The biggest stress of freelancing, for me, revolves around money: not having a regular income, not having your taxes automatically deducted from your income, not having a retirement account set up for you at work, not being eligible for group insurance, or, very simply, not making enough money! #AdultingIsHARD.

More than that, I had student loans from college, and debt from starting my own business, and I didn’t want to ask or depend on a significant other to bail me out of debt. I was able to take control of my debt and pay it off myself after setting realistic and manageable financial goals.

As an an entrepreneur and contractor, I know how important it is to keep track of my finances. I've always liked using Mint’s free personal finance mobile app, since it allows me to have one central location for all of my different checking, savings, and investment accounts, and now they have introduced bill tracking and bill pay options.

One password to access all of my accounts? Yes, please! Sometimes I feel like my life is made up of passwords and paperwork.

These new intelligent features send automated reminders, update payment status, and suggest bills to sync based on prior transaction history, with no additional setup needed for existing users. The tools aim to take the work out of bill management by seamlessly integrating data from multiple sources into one easy-to-use page.

We especially love that these new tools are free, with free checking account payments and there is no limit on how many bills it will track and remind you about! Mint also offers free in-app credit score updates, so now Michael and I can keep tabs on our credit scores and full financial profiles, so that we are always aware of where we are and if we are meeting our spending and savings goals! Next stop, buying a house!

Where do you stand?

This post was created in collaboration with Mint; all opinions are my own. Thank you for supporting posts that keep TechSesh.co up and running!