Avoiding Newlywed Nightmares
The excitement and stress of planning a wedding often leaves very little time for anything else. However, in between wedding and honeymoon planning, it is important to arrange a meeting with your soon-to-be spouse regarding your finances – including your credit card debt.
Although finances and credit card debt are not exactly the most romantic or pleasant topic to discuss before the wedding, it is nevertheless important. If you and your fiancé don’t develop a game plan for handling finances and credit card debt then you may find yourselves in the middle of a newlywed financial nightmare.
Start your marriage out on the right foot by asking each other the following questions:
- How many credit cards do you have and what are their balances? If you both have three credit cards, then you may want to consider paring them down so that you both have one or two joint accounts. Another issue to discuss is the balances on your credit cards. It is best to lay it all out on the table and so that you and your fiancé can move forward and develop a game plan to pay down the debt.
- Do you want to have joint credit card accounts, or would you prefer to have a separate account? Your soon-to-be-spouse may desire a joint account with you, as well as a separate account, particularly if he/she uses credit cards for business purposes.
- What do you use your credit cards for? Does your fiancé use his/her credit card for emergency purposes only, or does he/she use them on a daily basis to collect reward points? You will both need to come to an agreement regarding what is acceptable once you are married so that arguments do not erupt over credit card debt.
- Who will handle the finances, including the credit card bills? Many couples appoint one person to handle the finances as to prevent confusion and hassle. Talk frankly and openly about this issue and decide which person would be best suited to handle the position of “account manager.”
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