due to get married and new man has debt

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2003
due to get married and new man has debt
4
Mon, 05-30-2005 - 9:58am

Hello,

Im due to get marreid in about 6 months. My man has dept like 15,000. Do you all know if this will follow to me. I own a house and have stocks. I live in the state of ca. Also, do you know if his ex wife and attach my income for more money?? Help need facts before i marry.

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-14-2004
Mon, 05-30-2005 - 7:51pm
Wow. Be very careful. Any debt in his name will remain in his name and will not reflect on your credit report. When we got married, I had excellent credit and my husband had a lot of debt and poor credit. I made a point of keeping all accounts separate and purchased the vehicles in my name only. The main pain of marrying someone with debt is that now the debt is yours as well, maybe not on paper, but if you want to keep the bill collectors away you have to count on paying off his debt together. If his credit is good, that's great.
I don't know if his exwife can request more money due to your income. In your situation, it would be very wise to consult an attorney for some good advice.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Tue, 05-31-2005 - 12:27pm
I think its good that you are thinking about this before you get married. Its always harder to find out after the fact that there was something you should have done to protect yourself. I agree with the first poster about how getting married would affect alimony or child support payments. I don't think they can directly take your money, but do they count the household income for determining payments or just his? In a really bad case of "you have to be kidding" I read an article a week or so ago about a woman who was suing her inlaws for alimony! Her DH had an accident that left him diabled (some kind of head trama), so his parents took the family in to help take care of them. Now the wife wants a divorce and thinks her inlaws should pay to keep her in the same lifestyle she had at their house. Sick isn't it?
Also, have you discussed how he got into debt in the first place? Is it a result of lifestyle and impulse buying? Or was it circumstances beyond his control (divorce, job loss, etc)? Is he committed to getting out of debt? If you hang around the board and visit the archives, you'll see that a partner (DH SO BF etc) who just doesn't get it is close to the top of fustration list.
Good luck!
Sandra
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-31-2003
Tue, 05-31-2005 - 2:30pm

My ex-husband was in bankruptcy when we got married. We always kept our money completely separate. Even though it costs more, we filed our income taxes 'married but filing separately'. We didn't even use the same bank.

However, when we divorced, he got half of everything we had aquired after our marriage, including half the profit from the house *I* bought with *MY* money, and he could have gone after half my retirement savings as well. I also had to continue to cover his health insurance.

Since you own your house before you're married, you probably won't have to split it with him in the unhappy event that you decide to untie the knot. I just wouldn't put his name on anything of mine, if I were in your shoes.

Good luck!

Lee Ann

Lee Ann

www.werenotafraid.com

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-06-2005
Tue, 05-31-2005 - 2:56pm

A couple of things to think about.


1.

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