Financially should i get married

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Life events. Life priorities. Investor education. Tools and calculators. Contact us. Open an account with Merrill. Money and marriage: 6 tips for a financially happy marriage Share:. Text size: aA aA aA. When you and your spouse married, you agreed to share a financial future. Or, you might keep your individual checking accounts and transfer a certain amount of money every month into an account you use for bills, and into another one you both use for savings. Joining financial lives can result in tough conversations if there's an income disparity, or if one partner has misgivings about doing so.

Take it slow, and try not to make any hasty decisions or put your partner in an awkward position. With or without shared accounts, budget and plan for the future together so that neither debt nor retirement can throw your marriage bliss off course. Remember, you have your whole life ahead of you.

Enjoy Increased Borrowing Power Getting married and combining your bank accounts won't wed individual debts you brought into the marriage—those stay separate in your own names and on your own credit reports. But when it comes to new debt you might want to take on as a couple, lenders consider both married partners' credit in their loan applications.

If one spouse has excellent credit, it can improve borrowing opportunities for the couple, even if the other has a less-than-perfect history. The legal ties of marriage don't directly affect your individual credit scores or reports , however, no matter how much debt either partner has or doesn't have. Debts you acquire together after marrying—whether by cosigning for each other or opening a new account together—will belong to both of you.

If you live in a community property state, both spouses are responsible for debt taken on while married, no matter which partner borrowed it. While any debt either partner enters the marriage with remains the responsibility of the borrower, your financial history can affect your financial future as a couple.

Be sure to check in regularly to avoid any financial surprises down the road. File Together for Income Tax Benefits Taxes can be as complex as maintaining a successful marriage, and those taxes get doubly complicated when it comes to filing as a married couple.

Whether tax season rolls around before, during or after your honeymoon phase, you may see either an annual bonus or a penalty. Depending on your individual tax situations, you and your spouse may owe less or get back more filing as a couple than you would if you filed separately. This often occurs when a couple has a large difference in their income levels. On the other hand, a couple with similar income levels may end up paying more in taxes if they choose to file a joint return than they would have filing individually.

You and your spouse can still file your taxes separately if you worry about tax penalties, but it could be worth it to first go over your options with a tax professional.

After all, some of the best tax breaks and credits for married couples are only available if you file together. Gain Social Security Benefits When you promise to care for each other in sickness and in health, you become entitled to certain perks through Social Security. Social Security survivor benefits also kick in if the worst should happen and one spouse passes away.

When one spouse dies, the surviving spouse is eligible to receive their benefit payment when they retire. Generally, the surviving spouse needs to be at least 60 years of age to collect survivor benefits, with full benefits taking effect once the widow or widower reaches full retirement age. Consider Combining Health Insurance Not every employer allows you to add a spouse to your insurance, but combining insurance can be beneficial when one of your insurance plans offers significantly more coverage, a lower cost or both.

If you go this route, you may be subject to some additional costs on the insurance plan to account for your spouse's inclusion; you can weigh this against the cost of keeping your own separate health plans. If you have a family, all your medical spending counts toward your insurance maximum, so you might be able to financially justify the spousal surcharge, rather than paying two separate insurance premiums.

Compare the details of your coverage to see if you can save on expenses by merging. Investing for Retirement An individual retirement account IRA , and the employer-backed k are excellent ways to set yourself and your spouse up for later in life.

These allow you to invest and grow your money to pay for retirement—essentially, investing in your IRA means setting up a future income for yourself. No doubt all those newlyweds, or at least most of them, believe that tying the knot will make them happier. What they might not think about is whether it could also make them wealthier. A study at Ohio State University OSU found that after getting married, people saw a sharp increase in their level of wealth.

However, people who had married and then divorced were worse off than any other group. As this study shows, getting married has risks as well as benefits. Furthermore, there are many factors that play a role in how marriage affects your finances. The benefits of marriage vary based on your income, your living situation, and most of all, whether you have children. What is possible is to examine the financial pluses and minuses of marriage and figure out how they might affect you, either now or in the future.

Married couples, he points out, can save money by sharing household expenses and household duties. In addition, couples enjoy many benefits single people do not when it comes to insurance, retirement, and taxes. However, being married carries some financial costs as well. For example, weddings are a big expense for many couples. The tax laws that benefit some couples result in a penalty for others. Many couples start off married life with a huge one-time expense: a big wedding.

More troubling still is that many couples go into debt to pay for their big day. This is a big problem not just for their finances, but for their future happiness. A study by the New Economics Foundation shows that people who have credit card debt are generally unhappier, and unmanageable debt can lead to mental problems like anxiety and depression.

After the honeymoon is over, married couples come home and settle into a new routine together. Getting married changes a lot of things about your living situation, from household chores to leisure time. One of the changes many newlyweds have to adjust to is filing a joint tax return — which, in many cases, means dealing with the marriage penalty. As a result, couples who file their taxes jointly sometimes pay more than they would as two single people.

However, not all couples actually pay this penalty. In general, the more a couple makes, the steeper the penalty they pay. However, in some cases, the marriage penalty can hit low-income couples hard.

These include the following:. Married couples often have more choices for health insurance coverage. This gives them more options to choose the doctors they prefer or to save money on premiums. According to Consumer Reports , this is almost always more affordable than paying for an individual policy, since insurers usually charge less for one policy that covers two people than they do for two separate policies. Perhaps the greatest financial risk of getting married is the possibility of ending up divorced.

While being married is generally better for your wallet than being single, getting a divorce cancels that benefit — and then some. Jay Zagorsky, the author of the study, says this could happen because many couples separate first before they officially divorce, taking on the additional cost of maintaining separate households. The impact of divorce continues long after a couple splits up. Bringing up children is a huge expense.

Decades ago, this cost was something that seldom affected single people. Today, by contrast, more than one-third of all children live with just one parent. Having children is a financial game-changer for both single and married people.

Not only do couples tend to have higher incomes, they also have more choices for dealing with childcare.