The honeymoon is over for all of those June brides and grooms. Now it's home to happily ever after - and bills, bills, bills.
How you handle money at the beginning of your marriage can have an enormous impact on the rest of your lives together. Or your lives not together.
Many marriages end in dissolution, "and the number one reason for that is financial pressures," says Howard Dvorkin, who runs Consolidated Credit Counseling Services in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Clear up the cash at the very beginning, and you can stop all of those arguments before they escalate out of control - and build a prosperous future. Here's how:
Pay off wedding expenses ASAP. The longer debt lingers, the more it prevents you from accomplishing what you really want to do. Interest rates are on the move up, so any debt you are carrying is likely to start costing more down the road.Develop a bill-paying system. It doesn't really matter whether you both agree to put all of your bills into the same shoebox or use the latest in Internet banking, as long as you have a system that keeps you paying on time.Focus on your credit reputation. You'll both need good credit scores to buy that first car or house. If one of you has a clean credit history and the other does not, keep those credit cards separate, Dvorkin says. Adding the "bad credit" spouse to the "good credit" spouse's cards won't help rebuild the weak credit score, but could hurt the good score.Keep some checking accounts separate, too. If you're both used to earning and spending your own money and have decided to kick in together for family finances, keep three checking accounts. One for each spouse and one for the household account to cover shared expenses.Talk about it all. Come up with a specific dollar amount for purchases that are so big the couple has to discuss and agree to them together. Below that amount, each can spend the money without asking. New couples should have many discussions about their financial goals, too; it's easier to make the household money work if both partners are committed to the same ideal.Eliminate redundancies. The National Foundation for Consumer Credit tells fledgling couples to compare cellphone deals because they can save money on a family plan. Compare healthcare plans from both jobs to decide whether to double up on the better plan.Save big, even when it seems impossible. If two households are combining into one, you should be able to save one entire salary, Dvorkin says. This time he might be being optimistic: Couples don't typically cut their expenses in half when they marry. But there's no time in life when you can be happier on less money than in that first year of marriage. Live lean while you are young, squirrel away as much as you possibly can, and you'll have the down payment when you need it.Linda Stern is a freelance writer. She can be reached at lindastern@aol.com.
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