Be one of the first 500 people to visit and get your first two months of Skillshare for free!
Hi i’m aaron from broke millennial for the financial diet welcome to the three minute guide brought to you by skillshare long distance relationships are a lot to handle there’s missing your partner not having the physical contact with each other and trying to figure out how to communicate in meaningful ways and not just have a perfunctory phone call at the end of the
Day recapping what had happened but one of the real killers of a long distance relationship is the financial burden it can cause my then boyfriend now husband who i call peach and i dated for just under a year before i moved to new york city we stayed in a long-distance relationship for four years one month two weeks and three days before peach moved to new york
City and we were together for a total of eight years before we got married our lives and careers changed a lot in the four years that we were long-distance so we had to keep reevaluating our expectations of the relationship and finances were a big part of that here are some of the ways that we made it work split every trip 50/50 for a while in the long-distance
Relationship i was the one with more flexibility so it made more sense for me to be the one traveling from new york city where i lived up to visit him after my fourth trip in a row to visit him i told him that i simply couldn’t handle the financial burden anymore of always being the one to pay to travel he agreed that it wasn’t fair to expect me to be the one
Paying just because i was the one traveling so from then on we instituted a 50/50 split policy so anytime someone traveled it didn’t matter if it was me to him or him to me we both paid for 50% of the trip this also helps make sure there was no mental tally of who had put more into the relationship financially obviously you need to be open with each other about
Your forms of travel if the two of you can only afford to ride the bus to visit each other then it’s not fair for you to book a flight and expect your partner to pay for 50% each and i usually also split the cost of dates 50/50 just to keep things simple if this doesn’t sound feasible to you then consider prorating based on your incomes it might be a little bit
More tedious but perhaps that’s what’s more healthy for your relationship create your expectations for visits each and i would talk every night and we prioritize seeing each other once a month the longest stretch we would go is six weeks oftentimes and those early years when i wasn’t making a whole lot of money i would be the one riding a greyhound bus late on a
Friday night in order to see him all day saturday and then back sunday we could also do more fun dates and splurge a bit more where he lived because it was cheaper than living in new york city be wary of putting too much pressure on your time together it is so easy to put a lot of pressure on these brief moments of time that you get together it might only be one
Weekend a month so you’re trying to cram a month’s worth of fun activities into a 48-hour window this trap can sink a lot of long-distance relationships because of that pressure and the high expectations can lead to fight in you also don’t have to splurge and go on fancy dates each time you see each other just because it is rare be sure to treat some of those trips
Like you would if you actually lived in the same city maybe that means cooking at home putting on sweatpants and just watching a movie together have a savings account four visits each of you should have a savings account that you put money in every paycheck in order to cover the trips that you need to take to visit each other and maybe the occasional fancy date
That way you don’t have to stress about busting your budgets each time you want to take a trip to see each other it also ensures that you can always reimburse your partner for fifty percent of his or her trip if that’s the way you choose to handle the finances be open about money the final secret to surviving and thriving in a long-distance relationship is to be
Open about money have an honest conversation with your partner about what you can afford and maybe even more importantly what you can’t afford there should be no shaming nor should you constantly cover your partner because this can create a financial imbalance that can lead to a lot of fighting like any relationship long-distance has its pros and cons its ups and
Down but if you’re successful in one you can learn a lot about yourself your partner and how to build a strong foundation of trust and communication and that translates very well into building both romantic and a financial life together being in a long-distance relationship can mean some nights to yourself with time to fill so why not learn something new a simple
Way to get started is with skillshare which provides an easy and affordable way to expand your talents every week we’re featuring a different skill share class we think you guys will love this week’s class is creative writing for impact looking inward and outward and personal essays hosted by new york times bestselling author roxane gay this one-hour masterclass
Is an insightful inspiring look at how to transform your story into a powerful personal essay as always those skillshare offers a huge range of high-quality classes on must know topics from writing to fitness to business and it’s all about what you want to learn at affordable annual subscription of less than $10 a month and sent skillshare is sponsoring this video
The first 500 people to use the promo link in the description will get their first two months free to try it out risk-free click the link in the description to check this week’s featured class or any of the other classes skillshare has to offer have a money question you want to learn more about leave your topic idea in the comments section below i’m erin from
Broke millennial for the financial diet and don’t forget to be here next thursday for a new 3-minute guide
Transcribed from video
How To Make A Long-Distance Relationship Work Financially | The 3-Minute Guide By The Financial Diet
