Money often pushes couples apart. It can even lead all the way to a divorce when couples cannot resolve their differences. These financial issues can then trickle over into the property division process.
Below are four different issues that sometimes cause a marriage to split up.
1. Excessive debt.
Debt puts a lot of stress on a relationship. This is especially true when most of it is assigned to one person — a wife with no debt and a husband with $100,000 in student loans, for instance. Frivolous debt, like money owed from gambling, is also very problematic.
2. Resentment over purchases.
Couples don’t always agree on what they should buy, especially when money is tight. Purchases made by one spouse can cause resentment, as can one spouse telling the other that he or she can’t make those purchases.
3. The main wage earner wants to make all of the decisions.
This is often an issue when one spouse is a stay-at-home parent — or just unemployed — and the other works. Rather than sharing the money, the person who earns it still thinks of it as his or hers alone and wants to make all financial choices.
4. Spending and saving differences.
Some of this just comes back to personality differences. A carefree spouse doesn’t mind spending money on a whim, while a strict spouse who likes planning ahead wants to do far more saving.
When money leads to divorce, it’s likely to factor in heavily as the legal process plays out. It’s important for both people to know exactly what rights they have.
Source: Investopedia, “Top 6 Marriage-Killing Money Issues,” James E. McWhinney, accessed Nov. 03, 2017