Shared Finances Meeting Pack

For the method in Preparing for a Shared Finances Meeting, From Your Own Statements. Build this locally from statements each person is authorized and willing to review — no estimates, raw transaction uploads to a consumer model, or product recommendations.

Not for

Investment, tax, or debt-restructuring advice. Anything flagged below needs a qualified, licensed adviser, not this pack.

Before you start

• Chosen a review period appropriate to the real question; this pack does not prescribe a universal one-to-three-month window
• Imported or transcribed only the necessary fields into a local spreadsheet; no statement screenshot or PDF was uploaded to a consumer model
• Removed names, account/card numbers, references, exact balances and sensitive merchant details; merchant patterns and amounts can still re-identify people
• Used local formulas or an approved financial tool for categorization and totals. A training opt-out or temporary-chat mode is not sufficient approval

Categorized spending — [month]

Cross-checked category totals against the actual statement total: ☐ Yes

One open question each

• Partner A’s question:
• Partner B’s question:

Needs a qualified adviser, not this exercise

List anything involving tax, debt strategy, investment choices, insurance, or legal questions — do not attempt to resolve these in the meeting.

The meeting

• Date / time (choose a length both people can sustain):
• What we agreed on:
• Which flagged items we’re booking professional time for, and by when:

The three prompts to reuse

1. Check a local categorized summary

Here are category totals calculated and reconciled in my local spreadsheet
for [period]: [paste totals only, or use a synthetic sample].

Check whether the category names and arithmetic shown are internally
consistent. List missing assumptions or questions. Do not reconstruct raw
transactions, infer sensitive purchases, rank our spending, or recommend
a product or financial action.

2. Phrase an open question

Looking at this categorized spending summary [paste your totals], help
me phrase one specific, non-accusatory question I want to raise in our
finances meeting — about a category, a trend, or something I don't
understand about our spending. Do not suggest what the answer should
be or whether the spending is a problem; just help me phrase the
question clearly.

3. Flag adviser-required items

From this categorized summary [paste], list any items that look like
they involve a tax question, a debt strategy decision, an investment
choice, or an insurance/legal question — rather than ordinary spending
categorization. Label these clearly as "needs a qualified adviser,
not this exercise." Do not attempt to answer them yourself.

Recurring meeting log