Nashville Marriage Studio

This is a guest post from Omari Whyte, a financial representative from Innovative Financial Group. He’ll be providing us with great, thought-provoking advice when it comes to premarital finances for the next month or so. Not only will he be showing up on the blog, but his expertise (and humor) will be on display at the Bound Together Workshops.

I’m always amazed by these reality shows like the Bachelor. They spent a lot of time on these shows claiming to get to know the person. They go on these fantastic dates and have these “deep” conversations, however they all seem to end the same. They get back to the real world and realize that there was something they didn’t know about their love one. Like they have 8 kids or works as a “special” dancer.

It seems to me that they never take the time to ask the hard questions. There are a few questions that I think every couple should ask when it comes to debt.

What is on your credit report?
www.annualcreditreport.com You can go here to find out what is on you credit report.

How much debt do we currently have?
The average college student comes out of school with 20k in student loans and 1k-3k in credit card debt. Then the first thing they do is buy a car and get married. Its important to know where both of you are. The worst thing is to find out 6 months into the marriage that your spouse is 20k in debt.

What are we going to do with the debt we have?
There are three things you can do with it many people chose the last thing:
Pay it off before we get married
Pay it off together
Leave it

Will we use credit cards?
People who use credit cards fall into one of three categories. The Good, Bad, and the Ugly.
Some people are disciplined enough to pay off their cards every month and never have a balance (The Good)
Some people carry only a small balance but only pay the minimum (The Bad)
And the majority of American are out of control with credit card debt (The Ugly)
Whether you use them or not is up to you but you should talk about it.

Will we borrow and/or loan money?
Nothing is worst than having a spouse that is always loaning money to family members.

Whatever you decide on with these questions isn’t as important as just having the conversation. Opening up a line of communication is important to financial success.

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Omari Whyte is a Financial Representative with Innovative Financial He has a passion for educating and empowering young people and entrepreneurs.  He is focused on building long-term relationships with his clients.  By building long term relationship he is able to put together solutions that change as life changes.

You can reach Omari through email (owhyte@askifg.com) or Twitter (@whytefr). Also, be sure to check out his blog!