When people get married or become fully committed enough to combine their finances, they often take the right step by merging their financial situations together.
What they miss out on, though, is establishing true financial equality within the relationship. There is still a sense of “mine” and “yours.” You have “your” debts, I have “my” bigger income.
Very few people enter into a financial relationship with the exact same amount of money and the exact same amount of income and the same debt level, so such inequalities seem natural. The problem is that these inequalities are pernicious and can end up damaging the relationship over the long run.
Your best plan is to stop this before it starts and establish a financially equal relationship right off the bat.
How do you do that if incomes are unequal?
The first thing you do is make it clear that all income is “our” income and all debts are “our” debts. When you commit to someone, you don’t commit to being a lesser or greater part of the relationship.
When you’re sharing everything, debts affect both of you…
Read more: The Simple Dollar
