The economy has changed a lot in the last 50 years.  Whereas people in the past married solely because they loved each other, these days, people question the point of marrying someone who appears to be drowning in debt.

The fact is, sooner or later, both your partner and you are going to be in debt whether you like it or not.  Unless you’re a billionaire or have overly doting parents, you’d probably need to take out a loan to finance a house purchase, buy a car, fund your children’s education, or pay the medical bills for someone you care about.

When you put all those into perspective, marrying someone who is in debt does not seem to be all that atrocious anymore.  It’s how that person behaves about financial difficulties, and the attitude that he displays in overcoming debt problems that should serve as major contributing factors in your marriage decision.

Understand the Problem

At the age of 18, people begin to get sent credit card applications in the mail.  Many young adults who aren’t educated about debt management get inundated with offers as soon as they become legal adults, and they end up feeling trapped by the never-ending interests that they have to pay back each month.

And that’s why college can be the time in life where many people get into debt.  Not only do these people have to deal with student loans, they now need to deal with personal consumer debts as well.  Eventually, many college students begin to use credit cards to pay their bills and take out student loans to cover their tuition and housing costs.

These costs can spiral out of control because interest begins to compound while a person is in school.  Upon graduation, many individuals find it hard to get a well-paying job with their degrees.  This can make the financial situation much direr, and it’s the main reason why millions of people have consolidated debt.  The income levels have not increased enough so that people can get ahead.  When people do enter into a relationship with someone, they need to take into consideration that the person might be in debt for extenuating situations such as college or medical problems.

married by Javan Makhmali, on Flickr.  This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic License.

Understand Your Rights as a Spouse

As a person, your debt before you get married is your own from a legal standpoint, so it can help to keep finances separate so that each person can pay their own debts off.

While a joint account can still be opened after you get married, do take note that any debt that accrues during the marriage is assigned as joint debt.  Therefore, the only reason to open a joint account is if it’s used for paying family expenses.  Each person should contribute a fixed amount of money every month in order to pay off shared expenses such as groceries, mortgages, or car payments.

If your partner is unable to make any contributions to the family expenses, it would be best that you hold off getting into a scenario where you’d have to co-sign for him.  This can make your spouse’s debt your own, and cause huge conflicts between the both of you if a debt cannot be paid back in a timely manner.

Ask Yourself the Hard Questions

Many people fight over finances when they’re married.  If you know that being married to someone who has debt will irritate you, then you should really just avoid marrying into this type of financial situation in the first place.

Resentment can begin to form if one person feels as though the other is financially irresponsible, and this creates a toxic environment.  As a guideline, ask yourself these three questions:

1.  Will the debt bother me for a long time?

2.  How much debt is too much debt?

3.  Is my partner responsible enough toward his financial situation?

Reflecting on these three questions will help you sort your thoughts about marriage out.  It’ll also prevent you from entering into a marriage that is destined to fail from day one due to an excessive amount of debt.

Understand the Options to Deal with Debt

It can be a good idea to ask your potential spouse to take charge of their debt by using debt consolidation.  This can help to combine the debt into one payment and reduce interest fees.  Putting off marriage until a person is debt free can also act as a motivational tactic for your partner.  However, don’t make it seem like a threat!

If you want to have a solid financial future with your future spouse, go with him to talk to a lender about debt consolidation.  It’s a great way to help you pay off all debts in a manner that makes sense from a strategic standpoint.