Robert Brokamp

All right, let's move on to our fifth component, the State of the Union.

And we had in quotes by fellow Brocamps.

And the point here is to monitor progress.

Yeah, one of those neutral parties was a fielding financial planner, which may surprise people, given that I'm a certified financial planner myself.

But I do think it's important for even financial professionals, as well as dedicated do-it-yourselfers, like many of the Motley Fool Money podcast listeners are,

to check in with a fee-only financial planner every few years, just to get that objective professional point of view.

And I think it could also help when partners don't agree on financial priorities, as long as both are willing to listen to the professional with an open mind.

All right, so those were the five components of our financial manifesto.

But in our article, we also highlighted some of the problems we encountered when creating it.

So looking back 26 years later, which one sticks out to you the most?

Right, and I think we've developed a good sense of that.

And when, as you mentioned previously, you know what, maybe I'll make this an email first to introduce the topic and then see how it goes from there.

The one problem that we highlighted in the article that I think is interesting now, looking back on it, was the initial disagreement about the manifesto itself, right?

So I wanted this extensive document that was several pages long and it was more like a constitution, right?

Dealt with every little thing about our finances.

which I laugh about now because soon after we did this, we had kids and all that nitty gritty would have gone out the window.

So you wisely convinced me that the manifesto should be more about, shall we say, like guiding principles than like a company's audited financials.

So let's close here with some parting final advice.

Is there anything we didn't discuss, but you think is important for couples to consider when coming up with their own plan for managing their money?

Well, that is very kind of you.