Dear Quentin,
I americium successful a 2nd matrimony aboriginal successful life. My 2nd husband, who has acold less assets than I do, pays maine $1,200 a period to spell toward our surviving expenses. He moved into my condo erstwhile we got married. I person made it wide that this wealth does not spell toward paying the owe connected this home, which I purchased earlier we got married. The location is successful my sanction only.
I prevention the wealth helium gives maine and usage it for our yearly vacations, which outgo much than what helium gives maine successful a year. I bargain astir of our groceries and wage for astir of our meals. The wealth helium gives maine is deposited electronically into my checking account. I often transportation the funds close distant to my savings account, arsenic I wage my owe straight from my savings account.
Have I avoided commingling our funds with respect to payments made toward the owe by archetypal transferring the wealth to a antithetic relationship earlier making a outgo connected the mortgage? We bash not person immoderate associated slope accounts.
Older And (Trying To Be) Wiser
You tin email The Moneyist with immoderate fiscal and ethical questions related to coronavirus astatine qfottrell@marketwatch.com, and travel Quentin Fottrell on Twitter.
Dear Older/Wiser,
Thus far, it appears you person been doing a diligent occupation keeping your respective assets separate, but your tendency to guarantee this spot is not commingled besides sounds similar a persistent root of anxiousness for you, which does not bode good for a stress-free oregon blessed marriage.
Sometimes, radical spell to utmost lengths to guarantee their spot remains separate. This man created a spot 2 months earlier his matrimony without his partner’s knowledge. Upon their divorce, his woman wondered whether she was entitled to immoderate of it.
The champion mode to support your location and guarantee it remains abstracted from your marital assets is by signing a prenuptial statement to that effect. Failing that, you tin inquire your hubby to motion a postnuptial statement to debar immoderate confusion, misunderstandings oregon mistakes aboriginal on.
In the meantime, guarantee you person a coagulated grounds of each your finances. “General ledgers for some abstracted and assemblage spot accounts volition supply the cardinal record-keeping indispensable to support the viability of the system,” according to Walzer & Melcher, a California-based instrumentality firm.
“Strict integrity betwixt assemblage and abstracted accounts should beryllium maintained,” the instrumentality steadfast adds. “Make each effort to support deposits straight: enactment assemblage net successful assemblage spot accounts, abstracted net successful abstracted spot accounts.”
Remember, if your hubby contributed to the upkeep of your location — say, a caller room oregon floors — you could hazard commingling your assets and your home. Any funds utilized for renovations should not travel from a associated slope account. Keep a grounds of each slope transfers and payments.
By emailing your questions, you hold to having them published anonymously connected MarketWatch. By submitting your communicative to Dow Jones & Company, the steadfast of MarketWatch, you recognize and hold that we whitethorn usage your story, oregon versions of it, successful each media and platforms, including via 3rd parties.
Check out the Moneyist backstage Facebook group, wherever we look for answers to life’s thorniest wealth issues. Readers constitute successful to maine with each sorts of dilemmas. Post your questions, archer maine what you privation to cognize much about, oregon measurement successful connected the latest Moneyist columns.
The Moneyist regrets helium cannot reply to questions individually.
More from Quentin Fottrell:
English (US) ·