If you’re really concerned, or you’re not enjoying these money discussions with your Romeo or Juliet, Galena Rhoades, a psychologist and a senior researcher at the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver, suggests couples “practice communicating about money,” zeroing in on “an issue that you will face together, like deciding whether to buy a house.”
What about our parents? Easy to forget, but the type of spender or saver you want to marry probably picked up a lot of tips from his or her parents. “We see a huge influence on how our parents spent or saved and how we spend or save,” says Rick Bee, a professor who teaches a course on stewardship and money at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif. “It’s important to examine how you were raised and how you tend to spend and make changes now if change is needed.”
Who is paying what? Angela Thompson, an assistant professor of sociology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, says you should also come up with answers to questions like: “How will money be handled in your household? Joint checking account? Separate checking accounts or a combination of the two? Who is in charge of paying bills and preparing taxes? Is it fair to have one person be responsible for paying the bills for the rest of your married life? On the other hand, what if one person is really organized and the other isn’t? By default, does the organized person have to be the one to pay the bills?”