You’re a perfect couple, with compatible goals, views, experiences – but have you gotten really intimate and talked money?
Many couples don’t, and with wedding season upon us, the personal finance site BillSaver.com suggests you and your partner have a frank discussion, sizing up each other’s fiscal state before heading down the aisle.
A few tips for the talk:
n Don’t assume your partner is coming to the marriage debt-free, with a retirement plan and a stash of cash.
You should disclose all debt, including student loans, car payments and credit card balances.
n Discuss your attitudes and habits about spending and saving. You may disagree on these topics, but it’s important to reach a comfort level with how the other person will act toward the marriage’s assets and debts.
n Determine how bills will be paid. Should accounts be separate?
n Resist a new house, car, furniture and great trips. As the company puts it, such splurges “are not newlywed entitlements” and big spending the first year of wedded bliss can become a pain later, when you’re ready to buy a house or have a baby.
n Start saving in retirement plans and Individual Retirement Accounts. A double income can help bulk up these investments, and you now have a spouse’s old age to consider.
n Update or buy insurance coverage. You may need more now.
Jobless stigma
Good news for unemployed executives – recruiters say that being between jobs is losing its stigma in the talent-search field.
According to a poll of 323 recruiters, 81 percent said they believe the stigma of being unemployed is less detrimental to the executive candidate now than it was as little as five years ago.
Last year, nearly a quarter of candidates presented to an employer by a search firm was unemployed at the time, up from 21 percent in 2001 and 13 percent in 2000.
Of course, this assumes there’s no past behavior that led to a dismissal.
Still, those companies now hiring are becoming more stringent with job candidates in other ways: Nearly 90 percent of recruiters said job specifications are becoming more demanding, and three in four say companies are more cautious about extending relocation offers.
The poll was conducted by Connecticut-based ExecuNet, an executive recruitment and career management firm.
AP-ES-05-20-03 1557EDT
Send questions/comments to the editors.
