Couple Goals: Building a strong financial future and an even better relationship

by Nicole Haddow

Journalist Nicole Haddow has entered a new phase of her financial life - as one half of a couple. At 39, she merged finances for the first time and as the author of Smashed Avocado and The Ethical Investor she had spent more than a decade researching personal finance, but is now discovering that sharing money and assets in the 2020s is complex. The traditional breadwinner husband and stay-at-home wife dynamics are increasingly rare. Relationships take many forms, with couples often having to navigate new social and financial issues. How do you split costs when one person earns more than the other? Should you discuss what happens if it doesn't work out? Is it right to ask your partner to contribute to your super while you're on parental leave? Should you go all-in with a joint bank account? How do you talk about money without killing the romance?Couple Goals is a practical and inspiring look at what can be achieved if you're a united team. Nicole shares her own story, talks to experts and couples who hold the secrets to success, and shows that when a couple is aligned in their financial values and vision for the future, anything is possible.

Genres: Relationships, Finance, Book Club, Business

242 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 10, 2024

About the author

Nicole Haddow is a journalist and communications professional. Her books Smashed Avocado, The Ethical Investor and Couple Goals are out now. An audio edition of Couple Goals can be found on Spotify and Audible.

Nicole lives in regional Victoria with her husband, Sam, and their fur girls, Frankie and Olive.

instagram: @nicolehaddow

Reviews

[Melinda Nankivell · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s difficult to rate a book such as this, but it’s a book I wish I’d had access to some years ago as it gives sound financial advice for singles as well as couples, for a range of situations that may or may not be encountered in life.

Things are explained in a way that are easy to understand and even though not much of the book applied to me at the moment we’re going to be putting some of the suggestions in place.

[Brit · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is good and simple advice throughout this book. I'm glad I've read it, I just wish it inspired me more.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this immediately after finishing another book by the same author: Smashed Avocado: how I cracked the property market and you can too.

I learned less about finance and more about how easy it is for female authors in the "finfluencer" space to churn out superficial slop such as this in quick succession.

First, you need an autobiographical frame story. The frame story this time was about the author learning how to join finances with her new husband.

Next, you need a list of basic financial concerns: joint accounts, how to handle money talk with significant others, weddings, divorce, child rearing, superannuation sharing, asset protection before, during, and after a relationship, wills, insurance, and so on.

At the start of each chapter, you provide an autobiographical snapshot of a time you dealt with the chapter's theme. Then you spend the rest of the chapter dispensing extremely generic advice about that theme.

Repeat until you've reached the end of your list and have run out of things to say. Then, as happened in this book, you can spend the final page soliciting advice from anonymous persons in long-term relationships about their secrets to relationship success. It doesn't matter if this wasn't mentioned at any time previous; nor does it matter that their advice is as bland as injunctions to "trust" each other. Who cares, you've just written yet another finfluencer book!

None of this is necessarily bad. Most people I know are not financially literate and could benefit from reading a book like this even if only to be made aware of ideas such as superannuation splitting between new parents, one of whom works and one of whom takes time off work to raise a child. What was bad was how much fluff and filler this nearly-300-page book contained. The author was clearly fulfilling a contractual obligation from her publisher to fill a certain number of pages, but the extremely low amount of useful information per page made this difficult even to speed read: after a while I just glossed over everything as my eyes swam in an expanse of empty pages.

And the problem I had with her previous book resurfaces here: I do not believe this woman is qualified to give financial advice. Throughout the book, she reveals that she still has credit card debt; that her car is still on finance; and that she's investing in the stock market outside of super despite having a cash buffer of only $10,000 between two people. Optimising cashflow to make it easier to service bad debt instead of paying it off is stupid: pay off the debt. Perhaps this makes her relatable. But I don't get it. It strikes me not merely as unwise but as a persistent fault of reasoning and character. Remember, this is her 5th major publication and 3rd finance book. In my opinion, she ought to know better.

[Ronald Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very easy book to read that help actually address the elephant in the room regarding the main cause of dysfunction in a relationship, past, present and future.

Surprisingly, the motif of this book is finance, however, it did not come across stale or repetitive after 250 pages. Nicole made good use of providing different perspectives, her own, her partner, testomonial, snippets of facts, expert opinion, general knowledge and also a bit of modern feminism. I have no issue with modern feminism, but parts where there are, due to the controversial nature of such topic, it does stir some emotion, but this dimension does keep the reader engaged.

I am lucky in my life, I have engaged most of the tips this book has provided, but it did reinforce my current habits with money so that I can maintain this in the real world. I just need now to brush up on my Will and whether to engage in a discretionary family trust as a investment vehicle.

To summarise, this book is Basic on lifes' touchiest of topics between couples. For a couple to be successful, the basic or fundamental need to be perfect for the relationship to flourish. The alternative is being apart of the >50% divorce stastitic.

[Barbara Dzino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book, especially being new to Australia - I've learned a lot about taxation, superannuation, and joint finances. This book is pretty general, but the country-specific insights really made the read worth it for me.

This might not be the case for someone, who has grown up in Australia.

[Jaymee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Complex concepts explained simply, the personal anecdotes were also a nice touch.

Good conversation starter for couples, but not going to revolutionise your financial literacy by any means. Best suited to a couple who are a bit later down the track, having kids, buying a home etc.

[Chloe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great starting point for couples or whoever is in or going into a relationship.

[Ella Sheetz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some useful things but felt a lot of it wasn’t relevant. Maybe when a bit older having kids etc.

[Gabriela Valdes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was good but a lot of the things I already knew