WAYS TO MARRIAGE AND MONEY

1. You need to know love won’t pay the
mortgage. Money is important.

2. You need to know if you’remarrying a spender or a saver.

3. You need to know a marriage is amerging of two financial lifestyles. One could be the Salvation Army; the other, Chanel.

4. You need to know it’s cheaperto get married in November and January. Yet you get the same
ending as the June weddings do.

5. You need to know financial security eliminates a lot of arguments.

6. You need to know if you don’tbuy stuff you can’t afford, you won’t have financial problems.

7. You need to know that if you put$30,000 on your credit card to get married, you’ll have money problems from day one.



8. You need to know to have financialdiscussions before you say “I do.”

9. You need to know to share yourcredit reports. Get them from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian. This way both parties know what they’re getting into.

10. You need to know a credit report is the easiest way to tell how a person handles money.

11. You need to know people are oftenmore open with their bodies than they are about their financial situations.

12. You need to know if yourfiancé won’t talk about money, you’re going to have big problems.

13. You need to know that if you’remarrying a person with high credit card bills or college expenses, those
debts will become your problem.

14. You need to know to develop a set ofrules that will govern your financial behavior. Rules about not yelling at each other, not making accusations, no impulse buying—these are things you must agree on for financial and marital peace.

15. You need to know to agree that neither one of you spends more than $150 without telling the other.
Even if you have separate accounts.

16. You need to know that majorpurchases can be a financial strain if there’s no budget or plan. And a major resentment if both parties don’t agree.

17. You need to know money problems break up more marriages than infidelity does. And often even that’s caused by money issues.

18. You need to know one of the greatpredictors of wealth is a solid marriage.

19. You need to know that if hegrew up overindulged, then he will feel entitled to the best of everything,
whether or not you two can afford it.

20. You need to know that if she grew upscrimping and saving, then she’ll worry all the time about not having enough.

21. You need to know how your spousefeels about credit cards: should they be paid off every month, or should a balance be carried forward?

22. You need to know that if thetwo of you make a lot of money and don’t communicate, your problems
will be that much more expensive.

23. You need to know to investin software like Quicken. It tells you where the money’s going.

24. You need to know there should be nosecret bank accounts. It’s weird, it’s lying by omission, and can instill a lack of trust.

25. You need to know the power of compounding interest. It means regular little deposits can make you rich over thirty or forty years. Talk to your financial adviser.

26. You need to know that eachof you should have an IRA.

27. You need to know you canavoid most financial emergencies and arguments by having enough
savings to ride out the bad times.

28. You need to know a lot of fightsabout money can be avoided by making a budget. You can find tons of
information about creating one online.

29. You need to know that each of you should have some mad money to spend without explanation.

30. You need to know to pay billstogether. This keeps one person from being scared to death while
the other person lives in a fantasy land.

31. You need to know that just becauseyour wife is in finance doesn’t mean she will be good managing the checkbook.

32. You need to know not onlyyour spouse’s financial habits and goals but also your own.

33. You need to know each other’s tolerance of risk: one person may want to invest in oil wells while the
other one thinks CDs are too volatile.

34. You need to know that havinga pile of money doesn’t keep you from being a miserable couple.

35. You need to know that a good financial counselor can keep you from making an appointment with a marriage counselor.

36. You need to know if one ofyou is thinking there should be a stay-at-home parent. And what the
financial impact of that would be.

37. You need to know that sometimes life and finances will require you to downsize.

38. You need to know that establishing a budget and then sticking to it means you don’t have to lie awake at night worrying about money. You can lie awake at night worrying about other things.

39. You need to know to not budget for the best of times, but the worst of times. Then during the best of
times you can save. And during the worst of times you can survive.

40. You need to know money comes andgoes. Couples in stable marriages handle it.

41. You need to know that if you live below your means, money will not be an issue.

42. You need to know to budget for theunexpected. The computer breaking, the doctor’s bill being double what you thought, the brakes wearing out—they could all happen in the same week.

43. You need to know there’s a difference between a regular savings account (the future) and an emergency savings account (a broken water pipe in your attic).

44. You need to know you need sixmonths of expenses tucked away in an emergency savings account.

45. You need to know you don’t need a lot of money to start saving. Just a lot of agreement. And willpower.

46. You need to know it’s important to regularly discuss your financial situation.

47. You need to know to do estate planningalong with your wedding planning.

48. You need to know to prayfor wisdom about money.

49. You need to know that whenthings get tough financially, God hasn’t departed the scene.

50. You need to know to establish upper limits on spending—and to stick to them. Like the upper limit on children’s Christmas gifts. The upper limit for birthday parties. This keeps one parent from being knocked over by a $250 pair of sneakers.

51. You need to know if one personspends like there’s no tomorrow, the other person will be scared to death.

52. You need to know povertycan be a marriage killer.

53. You need to know the spending habitshe has when he’s twenty-five will not be substantially different when he’s fifty-five.

54. You need to know the IRS takesa dim view of unreported income and tends to blame both people.

55. You need to know financial crisesare gut-wrenching, agonizing, and— most importantly—survivable.

56. You need to know it’s childish to try tooutspend each other in the name of fairness. (“You spent $2,000 on a refrigerator, so I’m buying $2,000 golf clubs.”)

57. You need to know that money, used wisely, can pay for a nice house, food on the table, college for the kids, and make other people’s lives better.

58. You need to know you don’t need a lotof money to furnish a home or apartment. You need Craigslist, eBay, and IKEA.

59. You need to know being marriedto a rich person who’s unfaithful, argumentative, and depressed will make you realize money isn’t everything.

60. You need to know your kidswill think your money is their money.

61. You need to know that if you start saving from the first paycheck, saving will be much easier ten years down the road.

62. You need to know moneycan help make you happy. And giving it away makes you happier.

63. You need to know you can check your credit report every twelve months for free at www.annualcreditreport.com.Then, when you go to buy a house, there will be no surprises.

64. You need to know to buy life insurance. Yes, it’s the price of satellite TV, but it means your family can keep their home if something happens to you.

65. You need to know you can get solid advice on credit and financial problems at www.debtadvice.org.

66. You need to know couples who give money back to God at the beginning of the month find they have more money than they expected at the end of each month.

67. You need to know there could be fights over whether or not to tithe.

68. You need to know financial security begins with the realization that it’s all God’s money. He’s just
giving you some to manage.