Money and marriage: Tips to achieve financial happiness

Posted: Tuesday, March 19, 2013 12:00 am | Updated: 2:33 am, Tue Mar 26, 2013.

(BPT) - Fights over finances are a commonly known cause of stress and divorce, and a new survey indicates that while the average couple fights over money five times a year, they discuss finances reasonably fewer than two times a month. Every couple knows there are some topics you just don’t bring up – his mother’s dreadful cooking, your uncle’s bad manners. Money, however, should never be among those subjects you don’t discuss – especially if you’re planning your wedding.

“In today’s economy, it’s rare that a couple enters matrimony debt-free,” notes Carrie Braxdale, managing director of investor services for TD Ameritrade, Inc. (“TD Ameritrade”), a broker-dealer subsidiary of TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation. “Yet many newly engaged couples may be as hesitant – or even more so – to discuss finances as couples who have been together for years. They can get a jump-start on a lifetime of wedded bliss, however, if they take time to talk frankly about finances before they walk down the aisle.”