hr: Money

If you’re a typical married person, chances are that your estimates on the state of your partner’s finances will be way off. The results of a study conducted in 2003 show that over 35% of people are unable to accurately pinpoint when their spouses were planning their retirement. The situation was the same when they were asked to assess their spouse’s net worth.

Photo Credit: mangpages

But this is rather understandable. As a married man, I know that finances can be a touchy topic. Specially if the marriage takes place late in life, there is an awful lot already going on before the couples tie the knot. Some financial details are just embarrassing, and sometimes, querying about them looks like a threat to the other person’s independence.

But apart from maintaining a healthy relationship, there are more hard economic reasons why you should keep yourself informed about what your spouse is upto. The main reason is that without that data, you will be in tailspin when your partner is missing. Either they has passed away or (God forbid) you are going through a divorce, you need to know what is what so that you don’t make a major mistake in the first case, or significantly lose out in the second.

Important things to know are your partner’s various sources of income, not just the salary, but bonuses and commissions, their investments, Insurance schemes, and their debt status. Any of these can have a significant impact on your own financial decisions, and after all, you do want to make the best ones right?