Considering Finances Before Getting Married
You’ve decided to get married and spend your life with one person. Congratulations! How much have you two discussed your respective finances? Nearly 90% of all divorces are caused by financial problems. Since you don’t want to be in that group, before the wedding is the time to discuss these questions.
Who will handle the money? Obviously both of you have an input in financial decisions, but who will be the one making sure the bills got paid? A good place to start is who is better with money. If one of you is a complete mess with staying organize, then the other might be better suited to keeping track of things on paper.
Will both of you work and who will handle what household expenses if you do? Surprisingly having two working people in a marriage can cause strain. Decide now if you will both put your money together or if it will be divided up into your share and their share. It’s also worth discussing how much money each of you would like as personal spending cash. Amounts that are just automatically assumed into the monthly budget and don’t have to be accounted for. Set a limit for how big an expense is too big to be considered by just one party. The last thing you want is to have a big fight because one person thinks a $500 television should have been a joint decision and the other didn’t.
Determine how much debt you both have individually. Remember, once you’re married all of it is your debt together. It will jointly affect your credit and therefore important decisions like buying a home or a car. Also discuss if you both feel budgeting is important. Many married couples don’t have a budget; they both just know how much is there and how much of that is unaccounted for. Other couples get into big trouble if every cent isn’t marked on the budget.
Finally, determine together what your long-term financial goals are and how you both feel about money. Does one of you want to save more than the other? Some people would prefer to do without the nicer things in life to have more savings, others would consider this unthinkable. Discuss these things before your wedding day and make sure your finances will mesh as well as the rest of your lives.
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