Marriage And The Basics About The Finances

By Gary Chapman

Our Mentality

Remember when we were kids and our parents told us to share? Why was that so hard? Well if we thought it was hard to share our toys it's even harder to share our money.

When you get married it's time for a change in the mentality of, "Mine!"

When you get married, it is no longer, "your money" and "my money," but rather "our money." Likewise, it is no longer "my debts" and "your debts," but rather "our debts."

When you accept each other as a partner, you accept each other's liabilities as well as each other's assets.

Full Disclosure

A full disclosure of assets and liabilities should be made before marriage. It's not wrong to enter marriage with debts, but you ought to know what those debts are and agree on a plan for repayment.

Marriage is two becoming one. Applied to finances, this means that all our resources belong to both of us. One of us may be responsible for paying the bills and balancing the checkbook, but this should never be used as an excuse for hiding financial matters.

Full and open discussions should precede any financial decision.

Marriage is enhanced by agreement in financial matters.

Whose Money is It?

If you're the "bread-winner" of the family how do you maintain humility and remember that it's not YOUR money? If you have a lot of debt in your name, do you ever feel blamed by your spouse for that?

We can lift one another up if we remember that all we have belongs to the Lord anyway.