Why sharing your body and sharing your money are very similar processes
Dr. Boyce Watkins

Sharing your money with someone you don’t trust is an incredibly quick path to financial destruction. The wife of the ex-CFO of Enron went to prison for tax evasion because of her husband’s complicated financial dealings. I read a story about a super model in New York who lost millions because she allowed her step father to control her assets. Who you choose to allow access to your money has an unimaginable amount of power over you. Giving away this degree of trust is not something to be taken lightly.

1. It can take you to heights you have never imagined Financial security can be a wonderful thing.

Couples are usually better off than singles, except for after divorce. A marriage is an opportunity for you to utilize the advantages of specialization to dramatically increase your personal and family income. Also, you are diversified, so your wealth is protected when you have a partner who cares about you and pulls their financial weight in some way.

2. Size does matter

But as we all know, more size is not always better. Sometimes having an asymmetry in the size of financial endowments for both partners can cause tremendous discomfort and frustration.

3. It is possible to be used, cheated on, and betrayed in the process

There is a long list of horror stories about one family member making bad financial decisions that left the other family members completely devastated. Sometimes, the events are going on behind your back the entire time, and you don’t learn what is going on until it’s too late.

4. It is only fun to share the process with someone who knows what they are doing

Trying to learn to save and invest with someone who doesn’t know what they are doing can leave you both out of sync and wishing you were doing something else WITH someone else! If you are finding that 1 + 1 = -2, then you should probably take your finances elsewhere!

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Boyce Watkins is a professor of finance at Syracuse University and the author of multiple books, including the forthcoming “Financial Lovemaking.” To read more about this, go to: http://www.myfinanceprofessor.com/