According to Monica Mazzei, a family law attorney at Sideman & Bancroft, “Money is the number one source of tension in relationships.” This can be taken even farther and noted that money is also one of the leading factors when it comes to couples getting divorced. Having a conversation with a soon-to-be spouse before making the leap and getting married can differentiate between a happy marriage and a marriage that may be doomed from the beginning. The following are only a few of the many reasons you should have a conversation about money before getting married.

Credit

Credit may not be the first thing that comes to your mind when you think of conversations about money, but it should be. One, or both, of you having bad credit is going to affect many decisions about your future. It will be considerably more difficult to purchase vehicles, homes, get credit cards, or many of the other things that you expect to be doing as husband and wife. All of those may have to wait until after fixing some bad credit.

Life Goals

Money can make a huge impact on life goals. Is your partner going to want to remain at home after having children? Does he want to go back to school and further his education later on in life? What goals do you want to have accomplished in ten years? All of these plans for your future are affected by money. If your financial situations are not clear to each other, or worse still, you and your partner aren’t aware of the others spending habits, then these life goals may never come to fruition. Everyone has plans, goals, or dreams for their future, and money tends to play a large role in seeing these things come to life. If you and your partner haven’t discussed money before tying the knot, you may end up missing out on some things that you considered very important.

Retirement Plans

Typically when couples decide to get married they want to start doing some of the fun things that they always pictured experiencing with their spouse. These sometimes extravagant adventures can start to change their savings plan, and may begin to dip into their savings account long before they planned on spending that money. If two partners are not in agreement on how they want their joint money saved or spent, before they know it those amazing plans they had for their retirement years could be gone. Without openly discussing finances before getting married both partners may lose out on the plans they had for their futures.

These are only a few of the reasons that having a discussion about money with your partner before getting married is so important. Money will play a huge role in your lives together and making sure that you are both on the same page is a pretty big deal.

If you find yourself struggling with debt or would like to find out about becoming debt free, call Debthelper at 800-920-2262, or visit @ www.debthelper.com.