I recently had a conversation with my wife where I told her that an event was going to be held next Friday. We left the conversation, and thought we both understood what I meant there. Problem is, we didn’t. She thought it was the next friday on the calendar. I meant next week Friday. I can see how we both drew our conclusions based on the words that I used, and how being a little bit more specific (I could have just said, Friday the 20th) would have left nothing open to misinterpretation.
I’ve been thinking about this small example for the past few weeks, and how it relates to money. How often do we use words about saving or spending that we assume mean the same thing to our spouse or partner?