Since I don’t have a money tree growing in my backyard, a visit to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is the closest I’m going to get to the source of money.  They’ve even named their website Money Factory.

The “money factory” is located in Washington DC and Fort Worth, Texas, and it’s here that all the Federal Reserve notes are printed.  They also engrave all the White House invitations, and print other security documents.  These are the folks that really can show you the money.

FREE tours are offered at both the DC and Fort Worth location.  You’ll see a short movie about the process of making money, and then tour the facility as you watch paper and ink combine to make millions of dollars.  Along the way you’ll pick up some interesting money facts and trivia.  The tour itself (excluding wait time) takes a bit over an hour.  It ends at the money gift shop, where you can buy novelty items as well as find serious collectibles.

The DC location is at 14th & C Streets NW, and in Fort Worth at 9000 Blue Mound Road.  The respective websites will list all the information you need to take the FREE tour.  There are some quirks and exceptions about the tour, and it can be impacted by the Homeland Security threat level, so check for details as part of your planning.

The tour is FREE, and is very popular.  It’s crowded during the summer, the most popular time to visit, but it also makes a great rainy afternoon activity.  The tour is appropriate for school age children, but younger ones might be bored.

Photo credit:  wikimedia

It took Paul and I an abnormally long time to finally get a joint bank account. Maybe this is one downside to the whole living together before marriage thing - I wouldn’t recommend combining your finances before having a formal (erm, legal) commitment. So when it came time to get married, we were already settled into a routine of paying rent and bills. Making the change to one bank account seemed like a pretty good idea, but we just never got around to it until six months ago.

Image: stock.xchng

When we finally got to the bank and combined our assets, debt, and made one central home for our paychecks, the change didn’t seem so big. But finances have always been a weaker area for us. We’re not irresponsible or anything, but we hadn’t really sat down to talk about how our money is being spent and where we could save and do a better job preparing for our future.

So we finally made time for that as well. We took an afternoon to go through our bank statements from the previous few months and talk about our individual spending habits.

A few things popped out immediately:

• Paul spends a lot of money on video games.
• I spend a lot of money on clothes.
• We both spend a lot of money on entertainment and eating at restaurants.
• We are not putting enough away each month to achieve our goal of buying a home in the next four years.
• Our debt is manageable but not really being effectively paid down.

It was at this point that I felt a little bit of regret that we hadn’t done this before. I mean, all of these indicators seemed so obvious and were probably in both our minds - but we never talked about it.

We have had a joint checking account now for just over six months. We still go out every once in a while, I am wearing a new shirt and Paul is playing one of those shooting video games that I don’t recall the name of. But these are now occasional indulgences. We help keep each other accountable - not by policing one another, but by supporting what we each love and being more aware of the overal mutual wants and needs. We now have a quarter of our down payment saved up too.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have gotten a joint checking account sooner. But then, I guess that’s all part of the newlywed learning experience.

In this shoddy economy, finances can’t help but rear their ugly head.

So, even though it feels unromantic, I must take note that today Perfectmatch.com announced the release of its Love & Money Assessment - it’s basically a tool to measure financial compatibility.

The tool was developed with its chief relationship expert, Dr. Pepper Schwartz and helps to measure financial habits and find the perfect economic profile of a future mate.

I just took the test, and this is the results it found for me:

Love and Money Assessment Results

Play with me! Take the test at www.perfectmatch.com/lm/

Image: Sxc.hu

What’s worse for a couple than facing a hard economic downturn?

It seems what is worse is facing said downturn alone.

Marty Babits, LCSW, BCD, says: “Too often people have difficulty communicating, usually because they don’t yet have the skills, which can definitely be learned and sustained through good times or bad.” Babits is the author of  The Power of the Middle Ground: A Couple’s Guide to Renewing Your Relationships (Prometheus Books, 2009). “We’ve learned over the years that love alone isn’t enough to repair the wear and tear that occurs in relationships, solid communication rebuilds love and trust.”

So, I must ask…in this age of great economic uncertainty…how is the recession hurting (or helping?) your love life?

Image: Sxc.hu

I have tons and tons to say about cashola today.  However, since we finance nothing we, my husband and webmaster, share custody of this computer. He’s giving me a bitchen redesign and update on my other site to empower girls, So Sioux Me. He’s totally hooking me up with Technorati and all the other blogosphere jazz that I just haven’t had time to figure out and do. New laptop for me is on the list, but new minivan (and air conditioning) had to come first.

So, I shall have to very quickly advise that you go to this Carnival of Debt Management where one of my So Sioux Me columns is featured.

“Tracee Sioux presents I saw Satan on TV (and he’s a little dork) posted at So Sioux Me. Don’t hate your spouse, hate this guy and get on a sound program with Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. Take back your life.”