Marriage brings an exciting new aspect to your life that you get to spend with the one you love. Just like with any changes you make to your life, you should spend some time planning for this new future.
Budget Adjustments
When you introduce someone else into your day-to-day life, you need to make adjustments to accommodate for them. Sit down together and spend some time figuring out your budget for the upcoming years. After all, you’ll be spending money together and helping each other, so you should be on the same financial page.
You will each have different financial expectations and goals, so you need to discuss them to make sure that you can respect each other’s financial efforts. For example, how much money do you both make? How much should you spend on food? Should you start an emergency fund? These are questions you need to address as you identify your priorities.
Every couple’s financial situation will vary, so you need to figure out what’s best for your relationship. Don’t be afraid to talk about finances, because it will help you be on the same page.
Discuss Debts
In today’s world, many people enter marriages while they still have debts. Discuss the debts each individual has including home mortgages, car payments, online cash advance loans, and even credit card balances. Once you’re married or living together, you should work together to pay off those debts and have a clean slate together.
Debts have interest and accumulate over time. With this in mind, it’s important to establish a plan to pay off those debts as soon as possible. While it may cause stress at first, the sooner you pay off those debts, the more money you’ll save in the long run. You will also relieve stress by ending that financial burden.
Even if you don’t have debt and your spouse does, you should still help with paying it off. After all, marriage is about working together. By taking the time to talk things out, you ensure that you will know your plan to pay off any debts between the two of you.
Joint vs. Individual Accounts
You want to discuss if you should have a joint account or an individual account. This will depend on your financial situation, so you need to discuss the pros and cons of having either account. It will depend on your personal preferences and what you think would be best for your relationship.
With a joint bank account, you can both pull money out of the account. This allows you both to place your income in that account and to save up together. However, you can both spend from it. If you have individual accounts, you can keep track of your own money, but it’s harder to use money from each other’s accounts when necessary.
This will come down to what you think is best for your relationship. Discuss it with your partner so you two can come to an agreement on getting a joint account or maintaining individual accounts.
Prenuptial Agreement
Unfortunately, not every relationship will work out. This is simply the nature of relationships, which is why divorces happen. A prenuptial agreement will let you know what will happen if a divorce occurs and who gets what portions of property, money and other valuables.
Each marriage will accumulate assets and possessions as you’re together. If a divorce occurs, then it can be difficult to determine who gets what. A prenuptial agreement allows you to make this decision ahead of time. By preparing it ahead of time, you ensure that things are fair without emotions getting in the way of judgement.
While no one wants to prepare a prenuptial agreement, it’s better to be ready for a divorce just in case. This keeps things fair and balanced if that were to happen.
Conclusion
While changes bring excitement and happiness to different lives, you should discuss the future. This will help you both to prepare financially so that you can avoid unnecessary stress in the future.
