Money & Marriage: Options to consider after walking down the aisle

So you just got married, but should you marry your money?

Alliant Credit Union Director of Products & Payments Sean Briscoe joins Wealth! to discuss financial options for married couples. Briscoe says combining your accounts can give you a sense of connectivity and make your financial lives easier, but it might not make sense if your spending habits differ from your partner’s.

Briscoe explains that every couple has a different set of circumstances but you want to look at the big picture when you start planning and saving for your financial future.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth!

This post was written by Kaitlin Propeck.

Video Transcript

So you just got married.

But should you marry your partner for money and should you marry your money?

Well, anyway, according to Credit cards.com survey, 43% of American couples have only joint accounts, 23% have only separate accounts and 34% have a mix of both joint and separate.

We're breaking down the benefits of each option so you can find out what works for you here with more is Sean Briscoe who is the director of products and Payments at Alliance Credit Union, Sean.

Great to have you here with us on the program.

So, I mean, we know what the breakdown is.

So what are the pros and cons of each?

Let's start with the pros perhaps.

Yeah, thanks Brad.

Um You know, getting married is one of the most exciting things that couples will go through.

But it's also one of the most stressful and oftentimes, finances and financial future is the last thing that couples want to talk about when they're getting married.

But oftentimes it's one of the most important things.

You share those statistics.

We see a broad range of what couples are doing and the most important thing for couples to start with is open communication.

The pros and cons and what works for each couple is gonna be different based on their individual needs, combining your accounts.

It can make you feel more connected as a couple.

It can help ease money transfers and paying for bills and joint things.

Um It can give you an overall sense of connectivity and just make your financial lives easier.

But there can be cons to that as well.

Um If you're coming into a situation where your spending habits, your banking habits are very different from your partners, it might not make sense to combine your accounts because you might find that there's some conflict or disagreement in terms of how things are being paid for or what debt you're comfortable taking or what savings amount that you're putting away.

So it really depends on each couple's preference and open communication is absolutely critical and that's such a good point here.

And I wanna elaborate on that a little bit more.

How do you start the conversation and make sure that the account structure that you have lined up is going to hit your goals for the future?

Yeah, I think first and foremost, honesty is really a great place to start.

If you're coming into AAA marriage and a relationship and you're carrying debt, you might be embarrassed or ashamed to share that with your partner, but it's much better to do that upfront and then work on a plan together on how you're gonna address that than to be surprised down the road, which could cause conflict.

The other thing is talk about your values.

What's important to you is saving is important to you is traveling important to you is giving yourself that cup of coffee in the morning and, and not having someone look over your shoulder when you do it important.

Um, everybody feels a little bit different about that.

And so honesty and open communication and talking about what's important to you and hearing what your partner uh values is, is absolutely important.

And, and so with that in mind, you know, as you're kind of creating that, that structure for your, your future, also, there's so many different accounts that you're having to balance as well beyond just joint accounts.

And, um, you know, your individual accounts, their retirement accounts, there are kind of all these visions for how you get to the point where you don't have to work anymore and that you can sit on the nest egg and the savings that you've built up as well.

You know, what does that kind of effective time lining look like as you're beginning some of that financial planning on a joint basis?

Yeah, that's a great point, Brad, I think taking a comprehensive view of your financials overall, um I is, is absolutely critical property, real estate is one great example, right?

Is someone bringing in a property or real estate that they already own to the marriage or is that something that you're planning on doing jointly, if you're going to do it jointly, who's paying for it?

Is it gonna be 5050 is one person maybe the breadwinner in the relationship and they're gonna be carrying more of that financial burden and planning for the future.

How much are you gonna save?

Who's gonna contribute?

Which piece every couple has a different set of circumstances in, in terms of how they should be thinking about this.

Um But you want to think about it holistically, it goes beyond.

Should we have a joint credit card?

But what do you see for your financial future?

What are your shared goals?

Do you plan to have Children?

How are you going to pay for college?

Those types of things, all of that needs to be considered in, in your financial planning as a couple and just lastly, we got 30 seconds left here, name changing after marriage.

Are there financial implications that people need to remember as well?

There can be, yeah, it, it can be a daunting legal process and um a lot of uh things to change when you change your name, but it can drive an emotional connection to every couple is gonna be different there.

But by changing your name, there could be easier financial transactions down the road that might make some of the pain of going through that change worth it in the long run.

All right.

Well, there are plenty of Smiths out there, so I don't know how I'm gonna sell that one.

Sean Briscoe, Director of Products and Payments at Alliance Credit Union.

Thanks so much for taking the time.

Thanks Brad.