Book Highlight: Jumpstart Your Marriage & Your Money by Elle Martinez

We previously caught up with (now) multiple Plutus Award winner, Elle Martinez of Couple Money. Elle has been a personal finance writer for over 7 years and decided to start Couple Money to help couples learn how to build their finances together.

Through her podcast, site, and now book, Elle shares tips, advice, and stories from her own journey and others about dumping debt, taking care of family, and dealing with sticky situations that many marriages encounter.

In her debut book Jumpstart Your Marriage & Your Money, Elle Martinez shares her four-week plan to help couples stop worrying about money and start building wealth together. Written in Elle’s warm, humorous, and easy-to-understand voice, this book helps couples build open and honest communication and get started on the path to financial freedom. By combining personal stories as well as lessons learned from interviewing hundreds of successful couples, Elle shows just how “personal” finance can be, and teaches you how to live a simpler, more stress-free life.

What inspired you to write this book?

The community.

As I interviewed more couples on the podcast on how they were able to work together and knock out that debt, save for their dreams, or retire early, I began seeing patterns and habits showing up.

At the same time, I was getting emails from couples looking to make that leap. Many couples know what to do (talk about money, spend less than you earn), but the tricky part was the how.

How do you open up about money (specifically debts)? How do you get on the same page? How can you create a plan that you’re both happy with?

I wanted to share the principles and the process that would give couples a leg up.

What is your book about?

Jumpstart is about getting your marriage and money off to a strong start.

It’s designed to take you step by step through a process that will help you two define your big goal, get a clear idea of where you are now, create a plan and system that will help you achieve it

What one key takeaway you hope someone gets by reading your book?

If nothing else, I would love to couples to come away seeing how important it is to define their why, their dreams.

There are so many paths you can take and tools to get you there, but couples have to know what they really want. Maybe it’s a house, maybe it’s travel.

You may want to start a business or you love your 9-5. Whatever the goal, I would be thrilled if couples feel comfortable being open and honest.

Who should read this book?

It’s design with newlyweds, but many couples have found out it to be extremely helpful as a reboot.

What are you working on now?

I recently released the Jumpstart Your Marriage and Your Money course so right now I’m working with couples to get them set up for success.

What is your writing Kryptonite?

Timing.

I found that I had to get up around 5:30am (5am some mornings) to have the quiet block of time I needed to get the writing done.

Waiting until later was usually a recipe for failure. With two little ones, it’s hard to have some quiet time to focus. I had to carve out the time to make it happen.