Continued from my previous post, where I was yammering on about my negative relationship with all things numerical.

There are, of course, aspects of modern life that require numbers, so I suffer from my affliction. Thankfully, Gay is happy enough keeping score for our Scrabble bouts, but I can't very well expect her to do all my reckoning.

Unfortunately, money eventually ends up being about numbers, so I'm really bad with it, too.

Don't get me wrong; I can spend it. I can even make it. I'm just not good at keeping track of it between the making and the spending.

Gay does some bookkeeping for me, and most of the rest I leave to Mark, which suits me just fine ... until ...

I saw this in an opening paragraph in an AARP article called, "Checklist: 8 Things That You Should Know About Your Finances as a Couple."

Consider this reality check: "All marriages end in two ways: through death or divorce."

Gulp.

The point is, of course, that both partners in a marriage need to know what's what with "the books," and be able to answer the following questions:

1. What is your cash flow?
2. How is your credit history?
3. How much debt do you have?
4. What future expenses do you face?
5. Whose name is on what?
6. Have you establish power-of-attorney documents?
7. Who are your financial advisors?
8. Where are your important documents kept?

Gulp all over again.

Another article details disasters of not having the right answer to the question, "When was the last time you sat down with your spouse to talk about financial matters," and I did try to read it, but by about the third paragraph my peripheral vision started closing in on me.

For those who are ready to deal with this, AARP has some nifty tools for getting a handle on your financial matters: Here is a "Debt Reduction Calculator."

This is an asset allocation calculator, and this is for figuring how much you'll have and need for retirement.

I really need to get a grip and deal with this! Maybe I can come up with at way to turn it all into word problems ...