Marriage is certainly a wonderful alliance. It’s happy, hopeful, joyful, and harmonious. It gives you love, security, warmth, friendship, help, and compassion. It can, without a doubt, be a joyous and perfect way to spend your life. And yet, nobody ever said it was easy. Yes, it can be work to blend two (or sometimes more) lives together into and amicable and peaceful living arrangement, but the result can be a beautiful life together. Well worth it for sure! And what is the key to making it work? Where does the “work” come in? The answer, in one word, is communication. You may think a certain way about something and you just assume your partner feels the same way but, well… you know what happens when you “assume”! The only way to really know what each other are thinking is to talk about it. It is often said that money issues are the number one cause of divorce in the United States, so it stands to reason that this topic deserves a lot of attention by a couple to make sure they are on the same page, and continue to stay that way. And money in a marriage is not just about numbers and arithmetic. How an individual views and handles their money has more to do with a sense of control, status, security, self-indulgence, priorities, fear, guilt, empowerment, dreams… the list can go on and on. And when you add a second person into the mix (with differing feelings), you can see where, without communication, the troubles can begin. Of course you should be communicating about a lot of things before you get married, and trying to get to know each other as much as possible before blending your lives together. And generally what your life goals are and how you view making and spending money are inexorably tied up with almost every aspect of how you will conduct your lives together. Here are some things to think about and discuss before you make that trip down the aisle and legally join your lives together ‘till death do you part”;
• Do you want kids? If so, when and how many? Will one of you stay home with them? If not, how will you handle daycare? How will you divide the childcare responsibilities? How much money to you plan to spend on them? What about saving for their education? There are a myriad of questions surrounding kids, and raising them, both in the financial realm and outside of it. Talk about it before you get married! As I said earlier, marriage is great! And if you are heading that way, then you are surely very busy planning the wedding, and maybe for a honeymoon too. You are putting lots of time and energy and probably money into planning for that big day. But do try to keep in mind that it is only one big day. Please try to spend at least as much time planning for the many years of marriage that you are facing beyond that one big wedding day. I think you can understand how equally important that is. Wishing you all the best for a beautiful wedding day, a happy marriage, and a very bright future together! For Amber and Brendan - June 13, 2021 💞 My hubby and I, recently celebrating our 35th Anniversary - May 4, 2021
0 Comments
|
Archives
June 2022
Categories
All
|