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Smart Handling of Married Money – Part 1 of 4

Posted on: Monday, April 4th, 2016

There are a couple of myths about how finances and marriage mix or don’t mix. Here are a few true or false statements:

  • Couples argue more on how money is to be spent than how much they have
  • We need to combine all our money – it’s best for partnership
  • Wait to get married only after all significant individual debts are paid off
  • Keeping our money apart leads to mistrust 

As you may already be aware, money matters have no right or wrong answers. Our responses only reveal our views and beliefs. However, are there any best practices?

In this four part series (adapted from an article by Jeanne Goudreau in Forbes magazine) we’ll look at some approaches widely agreed on by experts in financial money management – what couples should do before saying I do.

For starters you want to discuss your financial past.

  1. Talk about parents saving, spending and communication habits.
  2. How have these shaped your behavior?
  3. What is your emotional connection to money? To debt? To borrowing?
  4. Does money offer a sense of self worth, status, security, freedom or control?
  5. Or is it a pesky but necessary inconvenience?

You want to put it all out there with your partner, your goal being to understand and not to judge. As you have probably already guessed many of our different attitudes to money or debt are shaped long before we become dating adults.

In next weeks segment we will discuss protecting your assets and what to do with debt before marriage.

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