Jennifer Streaks, financial correspondent for Business Insider, offers some insight on the best way for couples to have the dreaded "money talk." 

<div class="block">Jennifer Streaks, financial correspondent for Business Insider, offers some insight on the best way for couples to have the dreaded &quot;money talk.&quot; </div>
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Wake Up With Cheddar

Stretching Your Dollar: How to Have the Money Talk in a Relationship 

Hello. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to News. I'm Baker. And now you stretching your dollar. Now, let's stretch it out. Having those honest conversations about money before you make that long term relationship commitment. Well, means you're less likely going to run into problems down the road. But how do you actually raise that topic with your special someone? Oh, that's a tricky one. So, to give us some advice, we're joined by financial correspondent and columnist Jennifer Streaks Jennifer. Good to have you here. Thanks so much for joining us. I mean, it is an awkward conversation to talk money but, you know, when you're starting to get to know someone and a lot of people tend to shy away from having those conversations about money early on. So, what are some of the ways to sort of break the ice in that conversation? Well, I think it's really important that you understand your partner's money habits. So, before you even have the conversation, you're paying attention first of all, when you're going out, how they pay their bills, what kind of car do they drive? Are they making the payments on time? So, those are the things that you do first you pay attention, then you just start to sort of broach the common sense questions like, you know, OK, how are you doing with your rent? How is, you know, your job is your job stable? Is there any lingering parental support? That's a big one. And of course, the student loan conversation. So let's say a couple is getting serious. You mentioned some great questions to ask, but now they're at that next level. What other questions should they ask their partner about? Then the next thing you wanna know about is debt. A lot of people are carrying huge amounts of debt. And I've had friends that, you know, they sit at the table, they want to buy a car. Now you're talking about buying a home, you're already married to this person and then you find out at the lender, oh my gosh, your debt to income ratio is so high or your credit score may not be the best. So it's important to have these conversations, especially around debt early on. We know a lot of couples, one's the spender, one's the save in our house. I'm like, uh you have different sort of capabilities here. How do you sort of uh what advice do you have to sort of find that common ground? Sort of be like? All right, if you are the spender, the saver, let's sort of meet in the middle here. I think it's important to understand your partner's relationship with money and how they see money as a tool as opposed to just a spending option and what their money had are. So, when you're with them, are they constantly spending? Are they constantly talking about going out to eat during the week? Do they go out three or four times a week? I even dated someone years ago that he had no food in his refrigerator because he was out five days a week, red flag, red flag. And so you ask, how are you sustaining this? Why do you not cook? So that's why it's really important to pay attention and understand their money habits. What are the benefits of being up front about any debts? That either one of the partners? It might be an awkward conversation if you have a lot of debt, especially if you really like friends. That's true. And it is an awkward conversation, but it's better to be honest, it's not the death now for a relationship, everyone has some level of debt. But at least if you're honest, you can say, let's find a way to resolve this. Let's talk about it. No one feels blindsided. Yeah. And are there different approaches? Maybe to a approach, maybe the spending or the debt habits? So that way you can work through it as a couple. So as you're starting to get more serious, you decide to maybe pull your finances, at least in terms of your thinking and you say, ok, this is how we're going to handle our expenses as a couple and that's how you come at it that way. And so now you two are coming together as a united front in how you spend your money and we know couples that talk about money and even have joint accounts on certain things that tend to stay together. Exactly. And the number one fight for couples money, money. Such great advice. Thank you so much to financial correspondent Jennifer.