Sam and Sally1 just got engaged. He did the romantic proposal with the ring in the dessert and champagne for after. Sally excitedly accepted and spent the ride home with her hand out, staring at her ring. The next day Sally was still dreamy-eyed thinking about the wedding, while Sam was breaking out in hives thinking about how to pay for it.
He knew how much debt he had from school and his car, but he knew absolutely nothing about Sally’s finances. He had no idea how much her paycheck was. He had a debt pay-off plan, did Sally? He tried to bring finances up with Sally however, she got angry with him. She felt he was trying to limit her dream wedding.
The money-thing was very important for Sam. Important enough that he knew he couldn’t marry Sally until they talked about it. He put his foot down and told her he wouldn’t marry her until they talked about their finances now and what they wanted for the future.
Money is one of the major causes of friction in a marriage. While an important milestone, a wedding is not your marriage. So before you walk down the aisle, talk about the nitty-gritty of your finances with your significant other.
Some questions to get you started:
- How do you spend your money?
- Do you have any debt?
- Do you have savings?
1 Characters and situation are fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is entirely coincidental.
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