Money Triggers a Survival Instinct

I was recently interviewed by SmartMoney.com about how entrepreneurial couples should handle money conflicts.

Here’s a small excerpt of the article:

“Money is one of those things we can get really bent out of shape about,” says Kathy Marshack, a psychologist in Portland, Ore., and author of “Entrepreneurial Couples: Making It Work at Work and at Home.” In general, money triggers a survival instinct, so worries about it can cause people to react “in more primitive ways,” she says. That’s especially true for couples in business together, whose livelihoods both depend on the success of the company. “If one partner makes a decision that the other feels is going to cost them, or force them to lose a contract, they can get extremely upset,” Marshack says.

Some couples may want to think twice about setting up anything but an equal relationship at work, especially when it comes to titles and salaries, suggests Marshack, the Portland psychologist. Some husband-and-wife teams, to avoid being hit by self-employment taxes, make one spouse the owner and the other an employee. “Sure, it probably cuts your taxes down,” she says. But it may not make sense when it comes to the “health of your relationship and even the culture of your business,” she says.

To read the entire article click here – www.smsmallbiz.com/profiles/Work_and_Life_Entrepreneurial_Mates.html#comments.