Financial Planning After Getting Married
After getting married, the financial to-do list comes down to five things: decide how you will handle accounts and bills, update beneficiaries and legal documents, review insurance for two, line up your retirement savings, and agree on the goals you are saving toward. None of it is urgent in the first week, and all of it is easier in the first year than later. Focused Financial Group works with newly married couples across metro Atlanta on exactly this.
Should we combine our finances?
There is no right answer. Couples use fully joint accounts, fully separate accounts, or a joint account for shared expenses with individual accounts for the rest. What matters is that both of you can see the full picture and agree on who pays what. A shared budget, even a rough one, settles most of the arguments before they start.
What needs to be updated?
- Beneficiaries on retirement accounts, life insurance and any transfer-on-death accounts. Marriage does not change these automatically.
- Wills, powers of attorney and healthcare directives, with your attorney.
- Health insurance: marriage opens a special enrollment window to join a spouse's plan.
- Tax withholding and filing status, with your CPA.
- Emergency fund, now sized for two incomes and two sets of obligations.
Do we need life insurance now?
If either of you would struggle to cover the mortgage or rent, debts and living costs on one income, yes. Term insurance for the years you depend on each other's income is usually the starting point. Disability income insurance matters just as much, because a long illness is more common than an early death.
How should we handle debt?
List it all, including student loans, and decide together on the order: highest interest rate first is the usual rule. Debt brought into the marriage stays in the name it was in, but the payments come out of the household budget either way.
What about retirement savings?
Each of you should capture any employer match first. Then look at the two plans together: a Roth option in one, lower fees in the other, and the combined savings rate you need for the retirement you want. Spousal IRAs let a spouse who is not working for pay keep saving.
How Focused Financial Group helps
We build one plan for the two of you: budget, beneficiaries checklist, insurance review and a retirement savings plan, and we coordinate with your attorney and CPA. We do not provide legal or tax advice.
Talk with us
Call 770-250-7588 or use the Contact Us page. Come together; the first meeting is a conversation about your goals.