When people are in a relationship, everything they see is love. And they came to a conclusion to marry each other and discuss the venue and wedding theme. They then plan on the place to go for honeymoon, the number of children they are going to have and after marriage, everything just went according to what they have planned. However, some couples encounter problems when the topic of money is raised. Some even quarrel. Therefore, before getting married, both will have to reveal their financial statuses via these questions.

1. What are the debts you have? How many do you owe?

The important thing that should be taken care of before marriage is debt because it is a sensitive matter that could shake the marriage life. The couple, thus, should ask each other on the amount they are in debt and what those debts are. After that, both parties have to clear all their debts, especially, those with high interest like credit cards and illegal money lenders.

2. How do you manage your financial planning?

Before starting a marriage life, each party should have clear financial planning and should let the other party know about their plan. After that, they should get advice to set their common financial goal and see which goals should remain the same. This is because when people are married, their financial goals might have changed. Importantly, they have to regularly consult and keep each other updated in order for them to achieve their set goals.

3. What should we do? We have different financial goals.

Financial planning is considered personal. Importantly, everybody has different goals, so, before getting married, couples have to ask each other about their financial goal. For example, one might want to save money to buy a house and a car while the other one wants to save money for their children’s education and traveling.

When the financial goals of each party are different, solution has to be sought. For example, use the time as an indication which means to set a goal to do short, medium, or long term savings. When the agreement is reached, both have to follow the plan.

4. Should we combine our money or not?

The option for couples to plan their money is to “combine their money” or “each use their own money”. This should be discussed before marriage. If the agreement is for each to use their own money, financial planning will clearly be separated into personal expenses and common expenses. Nevertheless, both should constantly update each other on their financial situations because they can help each other immediately if problems are encountered.
 

If the option of combining money is chosen, it means that the income of both parties will be combined, and personal and family expenses will be managed all together. This option allows financial management of the household to be easier. The management usually goes by appointing duty, for example, one person will be responsible for common expenses and the other will be responsible for investment management. Also, do not forget to inform each other regularly

5. How to financially plan for children and retirement together?

Any couples who have children will have to be extra careful in financial planning, especially, money planned for education. What kind of education will the children get? Will they be studying in governmental school, private school, international school, or studying abroad? This is important because different types of schools have different tuition fees. Thus, children's education plans will have to be discussed before marriage.

Financial planning for children’s education will be determined from the couple’s financial readiness. They have to consider if their savings and income are enough for the type of education they want their children to receive.

Besides savings for children, couples will have to plan for their retirement. They have to plan where they want to live after retirement and how much they will spend in a month. After that, they will have look at their financial information, income received, provident fund, social security contribution, investment, etc. After marriage, couples have to do financial planning for their retirement together to achieve their goals.

It was said that one of the important causes of divorce is financial problems. When a family is faced with a financial problem, tension will rise, an argument will happen and this leads to other problems. Therefore, if there are discussions, understanding, and mutual goals from the very start, marriage will definitely be a joyous one with stable financial status.