Tips for Managing Your Credit in a Marriage | Self Improvement ...

Tips for Managing Your Credit in a Marriage

Getting married isn?t just one of the most significant personal decisions of your life ? it?s also one of the most significant financial decisions you?ll ever make. Getting married has profound implications on your credit.

How can you manage this shift from solo credit thinking to joint credit thinking? Here are a few tips.

To Make One Thing Clear ?

It?s important to realize that when you get married, your credit reports are not joined together. Each spouse still has an individual credit rating.

A spouse with a good credit rating won?t bring up the rating of one with a poor rating and vice versa. Your previous credit decisions won?t affect your spouse.

However, moving forward, anything with both of your names on it will affect both of you. The car loan, the mortgage, the credit card?anything that you both put your names and social security numbers on will be reported to both of your credit histories.

Talk about Money Early

Talk about your attitudes to money as early as possible, preferably before marriage.

Understand what each of you believes around saving money, investing money and spending money. Work out your differences before joining your finances.

You might be shocked at what you find when you have honest conversations around money. Someone as close to you as your spouse or fianc? could have a completely different set of beliefs around how to manage money than you do.

Talk about Financial Goals

One thing you?ll want to get absolutely clear early on is where your long-term goals are.

Do you want to create a college fund for the kids? Do you eventually want to buy a house? Do you want to leave something for your children? Do you want to help your parents retire?

Or do you want to live the life right now? Do you want to retire together in the Caribbean islands together?

Different lifestyles and different goals warrant very different financial planning.

Check Your Credit Together Annually

Make it a habit to check your credit report every year. Before getting married, make sure you take a look at each other?s credit so you know what you?re getting into. Then, every year moving forward, check your credit together.

This allows you to spot blemishes in your credit as early as possible. Since most of your big purchases (car, home, etc.) from now on will probably be joint, it makes sense to pay careful attention to one another?s credit.

Managing your credit in a marriage involves shifting your thinking from ?me? to ?we.? You?re not just managing your own credit, but you?re managing your credit, money and goals for the two of you as a unit.

Source: http://www.e-self-help.com/tips-for-managing-your-credit-in-a-marriage/

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