Managing money is complicated and fraught with emotion, so it’s natural that conflicts will erupt.
Different Money Styles Opposites attract, and that’s especially true when it comes to dealing with money.
The partner who thinks money is corrupting and the money amasser who believes that the person who dies with the most money wins.
She recommends an exercise in which each spouse adopts the other’s money style for at least six weeks.
A prenuptial agreement-or a postnup if you’re already married-can help plan how to financially blend families, including how to deal with debt that one or both spouses bring to the marriage, says Emily Bouchard, managing partner of Wealth Legacy Group in San Rafael, Calif. “It’s a way to make really explicit what the expectations are and who is responsible for what,” she says.
A revocable living trust or a trust set up under a will can also be used to make sure children aren’t disinherited when a parent remarries, says Michael Davis, an estate planning lawyer in Columbia, Md. When the first spouse dies the surviving spouse will receive income from the assets in the trust and, in some cases, can tap the principal.
If your retirement won’t be derailed by helping out an adult child, then both spouses need to agree on how much support they’re willing to give.
Differences about when to retire often occur when spouses are about 10 years apart in age, says Rand Spero, a CFP in Lexington, Mass. The solution may be for the younger spouse to retire early with the understanding that there will be trade-offs, such as less money to spend in retirement.