Congratulations on your new love in Missouri. Finding love later in life can be such a joyous process. But you are smart for looking at the possible financial repercussions before jumping in again.
Depending on your current situation, you could lose valuable sources of income that depend on remaining unmarried.
For instance, as reported by USA Today, if you are collecting divorced-spouse Social Security based on your previous spouse’s work record and not your own work record, that will be lost once you remarry. Also, if your children are college bound and seeking financial aid, your future spouse’s income may affect their ability to qualify. Of course, there is also the alimony issue. Typically, a recipient spouse will have to forego any alimony he or she was receiving from a former spouse, upon remarriage, and sometimes even cohabitation.
Possible pre-nuptial agreement
Having reviewed some aspects of what you may forego if remarrying, there may also be issues as to what you may inherit. Perhaps you and your new love bring different income and assets to the marriage. A pre-nuptial agreement may be something to strongly consider.
Similar spending habits
You may already have a good idea about the financial mindset of your potential new spouse. Is it similar to yours? Or does it wildly differ? Is he or she a spendthrift while you like to save and act thriftier? Or perhaps you like to eat out frequently, tip well, donate generously and take cruises. Will your new spouse be onboard?
Impact of alimony or child support obligations
Note also that many people heading into a second marriage or even a third, may have an existing or future obligation to pay alimony to a previous spouse or child support. These necessary expenses will ensure that part of that new spouse’s income may likely be off limits to your marital bliss.
Acceptable credit standing
You may also want to determine the credit standing of your betrothed. It is possible that underlying credit may be poor or that the new love has excessive debt that you are unaware of. While you may not be responsible for that debt, it could be that the new spouse’s ability to afford the lifestyle that manifested while in the courting or dating phase, simply does not exist. You may want to determine the facts and then decide what financial situation would not be suitable for your married life.
