278. "We spend 108% of what we make. Are we screwed?"

Ramit unpacks how to stop overspending, take control of your money as a couple, and prepare financially for starting a family.

Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You to Be Rich talks with Grace and Chris, who are 30 and 29 and have been married for six months. They have around $119,500 invested and unusually low housing costs, yet their finances feel chaotic and unstable. They spend more than they make, struggle to understand where the money goes, and have never had a substantive conversation about money as a couple.

The deeper problem is the dynamic they’ve fallen into. Grace handles most of the money while Chris takes a back seat, and both avoid the uncomfortable conversations they know they need to have. With children now part of their near-term plans, Ramit pushes them to confront where their habits came from and what has to change before the stakes get even higher.

In this episode, we uncover:

Why Grace feels like she’s managing their money alone

How Chris’s avoidance keeps the same cycle going

Why “we’ll figure it out later” keeps costing them

How a $100 weekend budget disappeared at a baseball game

Why 108% fixed costs are only part of the problem

How Amazon, eating out, and social spending keep slipping through the cracks

How inheritance, a mortgage-free home, and family support shaped their relationship with money

How their childhoods taught them to avoid talking about money