Who You Marry Could Be The Biggest Financial Decision You Make
Financial difficulties is one of the leading causes of divorce in America.
According to the National Institute of Health ( NIH), financial difficulties is one of the leading causes of Divorce in America. When considering a life partner, one major factor to consider is what your financial lives will look like together. Your finances as a couple will either improve, stay the same, or get worse.
There are partners with a strong work ethic, will go to work every day, are very motivated and are strong earners. There are those partners that drain you, with never-ending problems and never seem to have any money of their own, and there are those partners who fall somewhere in between.
Choosing your life partner in most cases is your biggest financial decision because their finances will affect your finances, your level of income together and what you can build, or destroy together. The couple has to make and manage financial decisions together, pay bills together, decide on how they will invest and also affect one another’s credit score and levels of debt.
Before deciding who to marry, consider how you want your financial picture to look like, and assuming all other things are in place i.e. love, companionship etc. Decide if you can build a healthy successful life with this person.
Factors to consider
Openly discuss your finances together and observe their bill-paying habits. If you pay your bills on time and your partner doesn’t, then you are headed for some bumpy waters in the future. Look at each other’s credit scores and discuss what plan of action to take regarding old debts.
What’s is your partner’s work ethic like? Do they seem to bounce around from job to job or have gotten fired from every job that they have ever had? Decide if you can build a life with someone like that. Please do not marry someone unstable financially if you are planning to depend on their income too to build a life together. It is a recipe for disaster.
How does your partner spend money? Are they a spender or a saver? I am a saver and I once dated a spender, he would spend all his money and the somehow figure a way to spend mine.
As a couple, we were always broke. I was always stressed out and it wasn’t pretty. If you are a saver and you can’t stomach watching your partner spend money, then it’s a bad idea to get married and vice versa. If you like to spend money and your partner never buys anything or gives you the money to spend even though they have it, it will only be a matter of time before you start resenting them.