What does money have to do with getting married?

- So most of us consider marriage to be primarily a romantic decision, and it is a very important one. This is the person that you're gonna, and it's definitely, it should be about romance, but it's also a very important life decision. This is the person you're gonna spend your life with. But it's also a very important financial decision, because you're going to live with this person. And you need to be clear on, that you have similar financial priorities. If one partner, you know, is kinda spendthrift and wants to, you know, not save a lot or whatever, and the other one does, well, that could lead to issues in the marriage. It could get in the way of familial happiness once the honeymoon period kind of wanes a little bit. So I think it's very important with your future partner to make sure that you have similar financial values. And I would encourage those financial values to be live below your means, use money not as a tool to buy luxury goods, to kind of show off, but money as a tool to give you freedom if you want to start a business, or take a vacation, or have retirement. Or if, God forbid, you have something in your life that is a hard time, someone falls sick, and someone else might have to take time off of work to take care of them, that you have some savings, so that that doesn't become even more stressful than it needs to. And then, once you actually get married, there's even other, it's really a merger of your finances. And I've seen different variations, you know. Me and my wife, everything we do, it's together. You know, our bank account, same bank account. Credit cards, our house, it's in both of our names. I like it that way, you know, this is my life partner, we should be making decisions about everything together. But there's other people who do other variations. I know some couples that, they'll have a shared account, but then they each have kind of smaller, separate accounts where, you know, hey, if I want to buy that nice, you know, electronic gadget or that nice piece of clothing, yeah, I don't need to have oversight there. (laughs) So I've heard of that, but you know, ideally, your spouse doesn't mind you buying a little this or that, as long as it's responsible. And then, I know there's other couples that have completely separate finances, and it's a little bit more like roommates. Like, you cover the electric bill and I'll cover the mortgage, and you cover the car payment and whatever else. These are all things I've seen, but the one I live, and it's worked well for us, is the one where we just do, merge everything together.