Lauren Schwahn
Appearances
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
I don't remember the exact details. I just know it didn't change too much at that point. What I remember most is that we messed up adjusting our withholding after we got married. So we ended up owing more than we expected after filing. So heed my cautionary tale.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
That's right, and I know there are a lot of myths surrounding what happens to your credit when you get married, so let me set the record straight. There's no such thing as a joint credit score or a credit report. Credit files are unique to each individual's credit history, so you're not going to inherit anything from a spouse's record.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
The only time that your partner's credit might impact your own is if you apply for a credit card or a loan together in the future, then that information would appear on both of your files. But that's also going to be the case whether or not you're married.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
One other thing is, depending on where you live, it's also possible that if your spouse refinances an existing, say, student loan after you're married, that could open you up to liability. But that's not usually the case. I want to say something about the scam situation that the listener's partner experienced real quick.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
It's important to know if you've been the victim of a scam and there's a negative mark on your credit report because of it. Like in the listener's case, a charge off, which is when you have an unpaid account that your creditor writes off as a loss. Instead of waiting for the mark to fall off your credit report several years down the road,
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
you can and should dispute that with the three major credit bureaus to try and get it corrected as soon as possible. And the same goes for if you see a negative mark that's been there longer than you think it should. So legally, most negative marks have to come off your credit report after seven years.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And I don't know if the listener's partner maybe already tried disputing that information, but if not, it's a good idea. So that's my public service announcement.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
It is possible. Again, it's going to come down to whether they decide to apply for credit jointly or separately. If they get married and apply jointly for, let's just say a mortgage, lenders will look at things like the couple's credit scores and reports and also their debt to income ratio to assess their risk.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
So if lenders see that your partner has a high amount of debt compared with their income, or if their credit is in really rough shape, that could make it harder for you to get approved or get good terms.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Well, it's great that they've already shared details about their financial situations with each other. So hopefully they won't run into any surprises there. I think that's a really good start. I think it's also important for them to talk about their financial goals and expectations so they can make sure they're on the same page.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And then from there, they can decide how to prioritize those goals and whether they want to manage their money together or separately. For example, we know the listener's partner has student debt. The couple might want to talk about whether they should both contribute to the payments and possibly pay it down faster or if they want to have the partner continue to pay it on their own.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
You know, our financial situation wasn't that complicated. So there weren't a lot of major changes at first. Neither one of us brought any debt into the marriage. We kept our own credit card accounts open. And we're also renters, so we haven't gone through the home buying process or anything.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
But I think the biggest change for us was that we opened joint checking and savings accounts so we could officially combine our income. And that just made it so much easier for us to pay our bills and to save up for our goals without having to figure out how much each person needed to contribute or having to send money back and forth.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And also being able to get on each other's health plans was a really big plus. I would say if there's anything financially that I didn't expect about getting married, it's maybe that I'm just not as stressed about money as I thought I would be. I know this sounds like a really cheesy cliche, but my husband and I have always been a good team. We share the same values. We've supported each other.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And we're both pretty responsible with money. We both work in the finance world. So I think that's been a huge help. So it's not like I expected necessarily that a switch would flip and we would suddenly start fighting about money or anything once we got married. But I also knew we were going to make some bigger financial decisions like having kids.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And thinking about managing those added costs for me was just a little bit scary. But it actually hasn't been too stressful in reality because I've had someone else to share that load. So I'll give you one example. We bought our car right after we had our first kid.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
And we just decided to have my husband do everything, put it in his name because I didn't have to bring my newborn along to the dealership. So it was a lot better that way. And my husband's also just really on top of little things. Like he calls the garbage company to sort out our auto pay issues with our bill. And he has taken a lot of those, what I find annoying tasks off my plate.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
I think it's a good idea to check in with each other every once in a while and just be honest about how things are going. Couples might want to talk about whether they're making progress toward their goals, if there's been any changes in their financial situation, and also just address how they're feeling.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Because I think obviously the numbers and details side of managing your finances is important, but the mental and emotional side is really important too. And then there are a lot of ways you can support your partner, even if you keep your finances separate. You might just want to be a cheerleader for them or you can help them research a problem that they're having or share resources.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
You know, maybe you've used an app to track your spending and you really like it and you can recommend that to your partner. So there's definitely a lot you can do and just ask, see what kind of support they need and then deliver where you can.
NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast
Marriage and Money Myths — and Why the Economy Feels 'Off'
Happy to be here. Thank you.