Picking up from where we left off in Getting Married? Talk about These Money Matters (Pt. 1), below we will continue our discussion of some more critical financial issues that you should address with your soon-to-be spouse before getting married. Discussing these issues before marriage can help set up realistic expectations of financial responsibilities, setting you and your partner up for success in the future.
More Financial Questions to Ask Before Marriage…
Q2: How will the household expenses be covered?
Or, more bluntly, who is paying for what? Determining who will be financially responsible for various aspects of the household is another extremely important money matter to figure out before getting married. With this consideration, there will be a number of specific factors to account for, including (but not necessarily limited to) the expenses related to:
- The rent or mortgage payment
- Utilities, cable, internet and/or cellphone bills
- Food and water bills.
While it may be feasible for one spouse to cover all of these bills or for both spouses to agree to evenly split such regular household expenses, the bottom line here is that both partners in the couple need to have a clear understanding of how these financial responsibilities will be covered in the future. Making assumptions about this important money matter can set up a newly married couple for serious financial stresses (and problems) if the expectations don’t meet the reality of what each person can actually afford to cover.
Q3: What is your credit rating?
This may, again, be a very sensitive issue for some people, but specifically asking what your future spouse’s credit rating is will be critical to giving you a clear understanding of his or her:
- Current debt obligations
- History of paying on debt (or possibly missing payments)
- Ability to make larger purchases with you in the future (such as buying a new home or car).
With credit, it’s important to point out that a number of factors play a role in contributing to credit scores, so make sure to ask some specific questions if your soon-to-be spouse has a credit score that may be lower than you expected. In some cases, there may be issues that could drop off a credit report soon (or that can be easily cleared up in other ways), and these could lead to higher credit scores in the near future.
Be sure to look for the conclusion to this blog for some more important questions to ask your soon-to-be spouse when it comes to finances and money matters.
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