Quote:
Originally Posted by atxgt3
I'm not married yet, but I live with my girlfriend. It's heading towards marriage, and I'll definitely get a prenup and keep accounts separate. As a business owner I don't have a choice, it would be irresponsible to risk my businesses and my employees.
When it comes to bills we both contribute what makes sense and we take care of our own expenses. She pays for her car, I pay for the house that I already had, etc. All accounts are separate and she does her own saving and retirement, I do mine. We'll keep that the same and just keep contributing towards expenses together as it makes sense.
As to your college scenario, if she was the type of person to blow all her money and not contribute or save then I wouldn't be with her in the first place.
I'm pretty sure assets and debts brought into the marriage are separate as the rule, not the exception. Maybe some states are different but as long as you make an effort to keep it separate (i.e. don't start commingling accounts) then it should stay separate.
Same thing with inheritance, even if a spouse inherits a large sum of money during marriage it's theirs alone unless you start commingling. So marrying a girl with rich parents won't necessarily work lol.
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All of this makes sense. I was married about 10 years ago, we were pretty equal on what we had when we go married (both had a house not a lot else). I make a lot more than her but if things didn't work out (no reason to believe they won't but who knows) I would be ok with splitting everything 50/50.
If we had kept everything separate I could retire much younger than she would be able to, not sure how this would work or if it is really fair for two people supposedly together for life. I guess I could tell her tough luck for going into the field she went into. LOL.
Without the really well done prenup (then still not sure) I would wonder what happens if your business goes from being really small to really big while you are married. Example, when married total value of business was $50k, 15 years later it is worth $10 million. I don't think just keeping finances separate works everywhere.