On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of speaking at pit stop #2 on Jason Vitug’s Road to Financial Wellness tour. Being one to relish an opportunity to broach slightly taboo topics with a room full of strangers, I deviated from all the typical personal finance topics and decided to address how to get financially naked with your partner.
When I announced this topic on Facebook and Twitter, I had a few requests to share the presentation. It was filmed, so hopefully I can get access to the full version, but in the meantime, here is an annotated version of select slides from my talk. I’ve shared my own story of getting financially naked with Peach before as well as how we financially handled our long-distance relationship, but I’ve never drafted up a how-to list.
The topics below can serve as a guide for you to walk through your own process of getting financially naked with your partner.
Before you engage in this conversation, I suggest you move tactfully and be willing to spread it out over the course of several discussions.
Step 1: Picking the Right Time
I’d love if everyone brought a copy of their credit reports on first dates and laid out their entire financial pictures, but, that’s about as likely to happen as Donald J. Trump becoming an honorable human being. In the meantime, I’ll accept people deciding to get financially naked around the time they realize, “oh — this could seriously be the person with whom I decided to spend the rest of my life and thus legally link myself to.”
When that time comes you should ask the questions below.
Some folks may balk at the mention of sharing credit scores and even credit reports. I’m not advocating that you ditch your honey if he or she has a lackluster score, but it should be a point of conversation. A low credit score is often a reflection of how clean someone keeps his or her financial house. Are bills being paid on time and credit cards being used carefully or are items going to collections and cards being maxed out? Having a dirty financial house with no effort to clean it up, or, at the very least, refusing to hire a cleaning person to help you rectify the situation, is a going to be a serious long-term problem.
Step 2: How are You Going to Handle the Debt?
Are you planning to work as a team to handle your financial issues or are you both focusing on your individual debts after marriage? Listen, I get that personal finance is personal and each couple should do their own thing — but — the team mindset can really help remove some of the tension as well as help pay down the debt faster.
When you’re in a situation, like I am, when one person is debt free (me) and one person is bringing debt into a relationship (Peach’s student loans), there can be an ownership mentality.
The first time Peach and I got financially naked he immediately requested ownership over his debts. He told me that these were his student loans and he’d be handling the repayment. I said, “Sure, for now. But once we get married that debt impacts my life too. Why wouldn’t I help you in order to pay it off as quickly as possible?”
After many back-and-forth conversations on this topic, we eventually settled on a plan that worked for us. You and your loved should take the time to develop a strategy for your specific situation and set reasonable expectations for when the debt can be eliminated.
Step 3: Implement the Strategy
This is still in the hypothetical stages for my relationship. Peach and I are not legally yoked to one another, so no one has pronounced us in debt yet. (The pun was just too there for the taking not to write it down). For now, this is our plan.
Lots of things may change between now and then, so our strategy may need to pivot, but it gives both of us a sense of empowerment and calm to know we can effectively communicate about this often sensitive topic. It also opens up the door to talk about other items on the getting financially naked checklist, like our short, medium and long-term money goals as well as what our visions of the future look like and the money required to reach those dreams. Getting financially naked isn’t a one time practice. It’s a conversation that should be revisited on a semi-regular basis. But, for your first-time, be gentle and take a stab at addressing some of the topics below.
Thanks! I am gonna apply this financially naked checklist and so excited what it could change in my finances.
Thanks very much, James!
I think even if you don’t physically pay off his loans, then supporting and providing excellent information on how to do that would be helpful to anyone 🙂
That’s a good point and something I’ve certainly been working on during this time that we’re not engaged/married.
It’s nice and wonderful. Thank you
Hope it helps!
So glad you added the “vision of the future” checkbox! That is something that my fiancé and I weren’t on the same page about at the beginning but are now totally aligned. He actually just sent me a link to a tiny home building website AND texted me about his credit score! That’s like a sext to a finance geek. I’m a lucky girl 😉
Hahaha, a finance geek sext indeed!
I want to be financially stable. I’m going to apply this one. Thanks for sharing.
I hope it helps you!
This checklist is HUGE! My wife and I got married a few weeks ago and we are currently in the financially naked stage. To me, it is fun planning these things out, figuring out how we will bury her student debt while saving for a mortgage and investing on the side. It is a puzzle. But to me, it all starts with being open and transparent. You can’t successfully succeed financially as a couple if you are holding anything back or if one person has all the control.
Thanks for sharing!
Bert
Yes, 100% about being completely transparent. Even those with separate finances need to have that openness with each other.
Great plan! Hubs and I have always talked about this stuff too, even before we were married. It made it much easier for us to be team and start off on the same page in marriage.
That’s the hope! At least I know the communication is there, which will hopefully make the transition to joint finances easier.
So tricky to pinpoint that time to have the first financially naked talk. Too early could scare them off, too late and you could be already invested in a situation that you may not be a big fan of. Since finances can be a major source of conflict in a relationship I think your approach is incredibly important. Having those tough talks right off the bat will save you from MUCH harder talks later on.
I wish folks would get financially naked on date 1…but like you said, it can scare people off so it isn’t too likely to happen. But earlier is definitely better!
Good post.
Thanks very much!