One of the most important things that you ought to know about your spouse before marriage is the financial liabilities that he/she brings into the relationship. Because, after marriage, they really do become “our” liabilities. In our case, I’d explicitly mentioned to D that the Swift was on a loan — I recollect mentioning the minutest details of the loan — and that was the only liability I had. D, of course, has never had any liabilities ever.
Post our marriage, every financial choice that we made was made around what had now become “our” liability. After each EMI left my account, I’d send an SMS to D saying that ‘N’ number of EMIs were now left. We desperately wanted ‘N’ to quickly reach zero and it happened because both of us had a common objective: that of clearing “our” liability.
What do you think? Have you and your spouse had such a common objective? How did you go about achieving that?
3 thoughts on “Marriage and Finances: Each Should Know The Other’s Liabilities Because They Become Our Liabilities”
Yes me and my wife started pooling in our reserves to clear our liabilities. Both of us liabilities including credit card loans owing to our family issues but we made sure to clear them first. We are now on the final phases of clearing all our current liabilities. The way we do this is add up both our income. Then add up all our liabilities and we then make a certain percent of our income pay off the liabilities. This way we have a fixed vision regarding when everything gets cleared. The remaining amount every month go for our investments, savings and an emergency fund. Its a tough job to do honestly. We have been doing this for around 2 years now but whenever we see our total liability reducing every month, the joy in our faces and mind is apparent.
Hang in there. I’m sure you will turn things around pretty soon.
So very true, neither of us should become obligated for the other’s liability.