Jan 9th, 2008
The Follow Up: Money, Marriage, and Family
What timing. Following my rather less-than-knowledgable discussion last night on keeping finances separate vs. combined in a marriage–not surprising given that I’m a lifelong bachelor–I came across a number of posts by other personal finance bloggers on similar subjects.
Him and Her of Make Love, Not Debt, discussed Ten Financial Considerations for Newlyweds. They take a clear position on having joint accounts, but also stress communication and working together.
J.D. at Get Rich Slowly talks about how for many families, having both parents work doesn’t pay off, but the decision about who stays home isn’t as simple as dollars and cents and how the Parents.com Stay-at-Home Calculator can help them make a decision.
And finally, someone who is rapidly becoming one of my favorite bloggers, Mrs. Micah, has some tips that are not as specialized as they seem on how to save money if you’re the parent of a child with musical inclinations, but her post I really like talks about what could happen if your partner breaks your budget. Frankly, I can relate to her pondering if someone who’s single might be grateful they have more control over their money–yes, I am grateful, but at the same time, I think that I’d like the challenge. I hope SF is reading!
[...] Original post by Uncommon Cents [...]
I’m glad you liked them.
Being in a serious relationship requires a lot of trust–whether financially or emotionally or in other ways.
The person knows your secrets, can ruin your budget, can wreck your emotional life…but hopefully you’ve found someone who you can take the risk on. Or even better someone with whom it doesn’t seem like a huge risk–who’s very trustworthy.