Sitting down with your partner’s to discuss your financial health is critical, especially as you stay committed to them for longer and entwine your lives together more and more. Just because it’s “personal” finance does not mean that it does not have an impact on your partner and the life you two are building together. Checking up on each other’s credit health may in fact help determine how you and your partner fare as a long-term, committed couple.

Why Should You Know Your Partner’s Credit Score?

1. You will understand your partner’s relationship with money

It is shocking how not a lot of couples are aware of their partner’s financial situation. While love trumps money when it comes to choosing your partner, it is still in both of your best interest to sit down and talk about your financial history and current financial health.

By having a thorough discussion about both of your finances, you can both learn more about each other as well as figure out your strengths and weaknesses and hopefully work on them together. You will be able to know their financial behaviors and values and see if it aligns with yours and assess whether that is a good or a bad thing.

If your partner is hesitant about having the money talk, assure them that you are both entering this conversation with no judgment and this will only serve as a platform for the both of you to better learn about each other and move forward as a couple.

Keep in mind that your credit scores aren’t to be regarded as dealbreakers entirely. There are a myriad of reasons as to why you and your partner have the scores that you have. Student loan debt, medical bills, and other financial curveballs come at us at any time and unfortunately, they can have a negative effect on our financial papers. Just be mindful about why they are in the financial situation that they are.

2. Similar financial behaviors and values ease tensions surrounding money

Just as you look for a similar sense of humor from your partner, similar financial behaviors and values help clear the air when it comes to certain financial decisions. While poor financial choices do not instantly make your partner a bad person and vice versa, it does help you both discover any possible issues that may come up. This could also become a starting point to help each other get better with your financial responsibilities and goals to whip your finances into shape like to pay off loans, or raise your credit score.

Money is one of the leading causes of contention in relationships, especially marriages. By being more aware of how you both deal with money, it would be easier to catch any shortcomings on each other’s end and hopefully nip any tensions at the bud.

3. Tying your finances will be easier

When considering any joint financial decisions like a joint bank account or a mortgage loan taken out on both of your names, it becomes a responsibility you both evenly carry the yolk of. When you have successfully discussed your financial habits and situations and smoothed out any apprehensions you may have about each other’s financial health, you can enter tied financial responsibilities with less worries about how this could affect your personal financial health and your relationship down the line.

4. Smoother planning for your financial future

A strong credit history and a healthy credit score can greatly impact your financial future. It follows you everywhere in life and determines how easy or difficult it is to make larger purchases like a house or a car, and it can even determine how cheap or expensive you can make these purchases.

By being able to be more open about both of your current financial situations, you are able to make more sound plans for your financial future.

Getting Intimate About Your Financial Health as a Couple

Being open about your current financial situation and your credit score does not have to be so taboo. Society may have cultivated a culture of shame around money and credit scores but as partners, especially partners moving towards a committed, long-term relationship, it is important to be fully aware of each other’s attitude towards money.

Open communication in any aspect of your lives is always welcome in the relationship, so why not make the conversation around money just as accessible as other things like your medical history and your favorite TV show? The more comfortable you both are talking about money, you take away a lot of the unease you may not even know you are carrying about finances. And when you are able to break those concerns down, you are able to fully immerse yourself in building a future with your partner built on more solid foundations.

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