I imagine that if you all were short on the mortgage he would help? Or would he let it go into foreclosure?

Texas is a community property state. In Texas, income and rents from separate property (property owned before marriage, gifts, inheritances) are community property. The community estate is what is divided during divorce. So don’t be fooled by the idea that putting the rent money into a separate account will make it separate property in a community property state.

* If you own property before the marriage, the is that fair game in the divorce? What if you both lived in the property before getting married?

No it is not fair game.

* How do you deposit cash flow from rental property? In a joint account? Individual account? Which one and why?

Individual account if it is in my name, joint if both

* If you get married and one partner already owns real estate, then do you add their name to all properties in your portfolio?
Nope, not unless they made a downpayment

* If you marry someone with children from a previous relationship and become a blended family, then are you the non-biological parent responsible for that child’s education? What if they do not live with you and your spouse?

Nope, he would have to work that out with the child’s mother as long as she were living and maintaining a job.

You’re damn right-I have no shame in this regard. Screw not wanting to seem intrusive, heck, we will be married and I need to know just HOW responsible you’ve been with credit which also speaks to integrity and character. So he would have to PONY UP on the credit report, which hubby did before we got married.

* If your mate has tax issues with Uncle Sam, do you file joint or separate?
Separate, no sense in both of us screwing up

* You receive an inheritance after you get married, do you deposit this in a joint account? Separate account? Do you tell your mate at all?
This is personal because I did/am receiving an inheritance. This is mine all day till the cows come home and I will be making sure that I invest this money so that my grandchildren will see it as well.

First, check the laws in your state. When I divorced, I lived in Louisiana, which has common property laws. Didn’t matter that both of our names were on the mortgage or not…it was common property from the day of marriage or declaration of common law marriage. So please, know your state’s laws. We ended up selling the house and splitting the proceeds.

Not sure about the rental property – I don’t have any. But if I did have some sort of side business held only in my name, it would probably be my money. I might choose to deposit it in a joint account, but it would be my decision to.

I own the house my fiance and I live in. I will not be adding him to the deed. He did not contribute to the downpayment at all. He does pay me rent. However, this is something we have talked about and he agrees with me on this.

I have no experience with the children issue, but I agree with Fabulously Broke.

I did not ask for a credit report from my fiance while we were dating, but we did share financial information with each other freely during the relationship. Similarly, I knew the position of my ex husband as we were engaged.

I have no idea on the tax issue. It really would depend on what that means. If he literally has issues with being taxed, like a friend of mine, it would get very interesting quickly!

I think an inheritance is also like a side business…I choose what to do with it, but I will listen to my spouse’s input.

I had no issues with the way money worked in my previous marriage, and we have agreed to the same system for my upcoming one – we will have separate accounts, but have a joint account that we both deposit into for common bills. He will continue to pay off his car and his student loans separately, just as I pay for my dancing lessons out of my money and eventually a new car.

If you own property before the marriage, the is that fair game in the divorce? What if you both lived in the property before getting married?

No. It’s not fair game if it’s been in the other person’s name (solely) and the other paid rent or lived rent free.

How do you deposit cash flow from rental property? In a joint account? Individual account? Which one and why?

If everything in the contract was 50/50, it’d be into 50/50 for each individual account in my opinion just so it doesn’t get muddied in the joint account.

If you get married and one partner already owns real estate, then do you add their name to all properties in your portfolio?

No. It’s not fair.. in my opinion unless I’m willing to give him 50% of the value of the properties.

If you marry someone with children from a previous relationship and become a blended family, then are you the non-biological parent responsible for that child’s education? What if they do not live with you and your spouse?

If they become “my” children, I’d say I’d have a responsibility to raise them but unless I could have a say in their education and they really treated me like their mother, I wouldn’t pay anything.

If they don’t live with me, it doesn’t matter – if they’re “my” kids, I’ll treat them as such.

Do you ask your boyfriend to see his credit report before getting serious? Is that something appropriate to ask before getting married?

Not so much a credit report, but I probe a LOT about spending habits, frugality, how he budgets etc…

If your mate has tax issues with Uncle Sam, do you file joint or separate?

Depends on what kind of issues they are. I think I’d file separately until he got his issues sorted out.

You receive an inheritance after you get married, do you deposit this in a joint account? Separate account? Do you tell your mate at all?

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1 – I think it depends. It is investment property or a personal residence? Was it purchased separately or jointly? Legally, something separately owned prior to marriage does not become ‘community property’.

2 – Once again, it depends. Was it owned by one individual previous to the marriage or purchased jointly? Also, for audit-worthy financials, investment income/expenses should flow through a separate account expressly for that purpose rather than being commingled with personal (be it individual or joint) funds.

3 – I wouldn’t because it really wouldn’t matter to me. However, I would explicitly state in my will that the property would go to my spouse in the event of my death.’

4 – The non-bio parent isn’t financially responsible but since s/he is now married to the bio parent, the education would still come from “family” funds.

5 – I didn’t ask to see a credit report before getting serious, however I already had indicators that he was fiscally prudent (meaning had no debt other than a mortgage, was not a spendthrift, had savings, etc.). I would advocate finding out that information before getting engaged or married.

6 – I wouldn’t enter into marriage with my prospective mate having tax issues. I would want that to be resolved before marriage. Also, depending on the extent and circumstances of the issues, it might be a deal breaker in terms of getting married.

7 – I would definitely tell my husband. The amount would determine whether it went into my individual account or the joint account. I.e. if it was a huge amount ($100K or more), it would go into the joint account and directly back out to pay down the mortgage. If it was a smaller amount, I would probably just put in into my individual account.

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As far as blended families go: my husband has a daughter who lives primarily with her mother. I am not expected to support her in major ways (school, etc.). My income is not factored in when child support is calculated. Apart from that, though, I do contribute to her well-being (I sometimes buy her gifts, clothes, etc., contribute to the rent for a 2-br apt rather than just a 1-br, etc.) and simply consider it part of my relationship-building efforts.

My philosophy is pretty simple, I think- as long as our needs are being met and excess funds aren’t being squandered (charged to the max, gambled away, etc.), I try to be pretty easygoing about money.

I wonder if I could fit another “etc.” in there somewhere.

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