Top Ten Financial Considerations for Newlyweds
- From the beginning, save 15 - 20% of your income. By combining households, you should reduce your expenses a lot which should allow you to save. You should save to build your cash reserves, in your 401k plans and in a mutual fund.
- Rather than simply keeping 2 checkbooks like before you were married, pool your money into one checkbook and one savings account or money market.
- Change all of the beneficiaries on life insurance plans, retirement and other plans at work, and IRAs to your new spouse.
- Decide how debts accumulated by each individual prior to the marriage (i.e. student loans) will be handled.
- Work together on budgeting and tracking expenditures.
- Discuss your approaches to handling money- is one person a spender and one a saver? Create some ground rules on handling any differences.
- If both incomes are needed to pay expenses, be sure to have adequate life insurance.
- Be sure to let each other know where important documents are kept.
- Consolidate your credit cards to avoid having double the number of credit cards needed.
- Make a list of upcoming purchases together and prioritize them. You should decide jointly how to spend your money now.
Rescue Your Money, written by award-winning financial advisor Ric Edelman, is your personal investment recovery plan.
