Double Income No Kids Yet (DINKY) – How to Manage Your Finances
DINKY couples are becoming more and more common in our culture. You ask yourself, what is a DINKY and the answer is a young couple with a dual income but no kids. DINKY couples face their own financial challenges and you might be surprised at how many couples have difficulty managing their finances.
Student Loans
While it might seem on the surface that a DINKY couple would have lots of disposable income at the end of every month, in reality they are often couples who have huge student loan debt. Student loan debt has become one of the largest debts facing individuals upon graduating college and DINKY couples have this problem, often two-fold, since both of parties are likely to have student loan debt.
In recent years, with the downturn in the economy, couples have faced disillusionment in finding that their hard-earned degree does not give them automatic enter into the profession that they thought they would enter into once they graduated. Instead, they are faced with the difficulty in getting a job and high student loan payments.
One of the ways to deal with student loan payments is to pay them off as quickly as possible and not take them out in the first place if at all possible. If you have already graduated and are facing loan repayment, consider a loan consolidation program that either lowers your payments or allows you to manage making payments more quickly to pay down the loan.
Even if you are a DINKY couple, you need to be on a budget in order to take control over your finances. Start by looking at your expenses and your income. Hopefully, you have more income than expenses.
If this is not the case, then you need to look at monthly expenses and see what you can trim away. As hard as it may be to believe, it is not necessary to go out for dinner three times a week or every weekend. Be realistic about what you can remove from your monthly expenses.
Stick to your budget religiously and soon you will be surprised to discover that you are not only able to stay within your budget, but will actually end up saving money as you get the hang of it.
Start an Emergency Fund
Many DINKY couples have a hard time thinking about what might happen if there is a financial emergency, but it does happen. Set aside money in a savings account or other financial instrument every month until you have enough money to cover six months of expenses. You can use this money for financial emergencies, such as getting laid off from work or if there is an illness. Not only will it give you peace of mind, but it will also be a cushion should you need the money for an emergency.
Pay Off Credit Card Debt
This can be one of the easiest and hardest things to do for many DINKY couples. Get out of the habit of using your credit cards for everything and switch to cash. Not only will it keep your credit card debt from going up, but it will force you to stay within a budget. If you do not have the money for something, you will not be able to buy it - Plain and simple!
Next, start paying at least twice the minimum monthly payment on your credit cards. Pay more if you are able to, but keep paying down that credit card. You will save a huge amount of money on interest fees alone. Once you get the card paid down, then keep it only for emergencies and use it sparingly. In fact, do not use the credit card on anything unless you can pay it off in three months or less.
Overall, getting control of your personal finances can seem like a daunting task, even for DINKY couples. Contrary to the myth, DINKY couples do not have high amounts of disposable income to toss around unnecessarily. Make a budget and stay with it, eliminate unnecessary spending and pay off your credit card debts and you will be on the road to financial freedom in no time.
Kimberly Robinson shares her insight at CreditDonkey.com, where DINKY couples can go to find credit card deals and personal finance tips.
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Totally agree with you on Mint. It's a great tool.
Yeah, Dinky is just slang for Dink. :)
I dont hear the term DINKY used much, mostly DINK, this is great advice. To go even deeper for DINKs, there are a lot of tools to help manage your money. Here is a review of them JUST for DINKs on DINKlife.com. I vote for mint as the best one...http://www.dinklife.com/s/topic/money/7-online-tools-help-you-manage-your-money
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