A Test of Your Fiscal Compatibility
If you are planning to wed, you’d be wise to find out if you are as in sync fiscally as you are emotionally. Financial conflicts figure into the bulk of serious marital woes. Here’s a quiz--an adapted version of Citibank’s Financial Bliss Quiz--to help figure out whether there are economic issues that you ought to address before the nuptials.
There are no right answers, but the right way to take the quiz is to make a copy, take one and give one to your intended. Go your separate ways to fill them out. When done, regroup and compare your answers. The idea is simply to bring up similarities or differences in your approach to money, says Kathy Stepp, a Overland Park, Kan.-based financial planner who helped develop the quiz.
If you have serious differences or find it difficult to discuss these issues candidly, consider it a red flag. You’re going to be dealing with financial issues for the rest of your married life. What’s troublesome now is likely to become more troublesome later.
1. How important to your happiness is having money?
a. Very important.
b. Somewhat important.
c. Somewhat unimportant.
d. Very unimportant.
2. What would having more money mean to you?
a. I would feel more financially secure.
b. I would feel more self-confident.
c. I could do more things, like travel.
d. I could buy more things, like clothes and furniture.
e. Other (Please specify): --------------------------------
3. Which of the following best describes your current financial situation:
a. I have no debt and no savings or investments.
b. I have no debt and some savings or investments.
c. I have some debt and no savings or investments.
d. I have some debt and some savings or investments.
e. I have a lot of debt and no savings or investments.
4. Which do you think best describes your prospective spouse’s financial situation?
a. More savings and investments than debt.
b. More debt than savings or investments.
c. Savings and investments are offset by an equal amount of debt.
d. No savings, but no debt either.
5. How much have you and your prospective spouse discussed your individual financial situations?
a. A lot.
b. Somewhat.
c. Very little.
d. Not at all.
e. Neither of us have any finances to discuss.
6. Do you and your prospective spouse ever fight about money?
a. Frequently.
b. Sometimes.
c. Infrequently.
d. Never.
7. How good are you at managing money?
a. Excellent.
b. Good.
c. Fair.
d. Poor.
e. I’ll let you know if I ever get some to manage.
8. Who do you think is better at managing money, you or your prospective spouse?
a. Me.
b. My spouse-to-be.
c. We’re about the same.
9. How good are you at keeping your checkbook?
a. It’s balanced monthly to the penny.
b. It’s balanced every so often.
c. I don’t balance it. I rely on the bank statement.
d. It’s a mess.
10. What do you think about setting up, and keeping, a budget?
a. Excellent idea.
b. Poor idea.
c. Good idea for somebody else, not me.
11. Who should manage the household budget?
a. Me.
b. My spouse.
c. We should share the management equally.
d. We should each take care of our own budgets.
12. How do you think you should set up your accounts?
a. We should pool our resources into joint accounts.
b. We should have some joint accounts and some separate accounts.
c. We should keep our money in totally separate accounts.
13. How will you decide how much spending money each of you have?
a. It should be based on what is left over from our household budget.
b. It should be based on how much we each earn.
c. It should be based on our respective needs.
d. We should each get equal amounts of spending money each month. The amounts would be based on what we could afford as a couple, but not on how much we individually earn.
14. What do you think, as a couple, you will be spending your money on in the immediate future?
a. Furniture.
b. Electronics.
c. Vacations.
d. Clothes.
e. Savings.
f. Other (specify):
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15. How much of your take-home pay do you plan to save? (Include all forms of savings, such as 401[k], stock, mutual fund and bank accounts.)
a. More than 20%.
b. 15% to 20%.
c. 10% to 15%.
d. 5% to 10%.
e. 2% to 5%.
f. Other (specify):
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16. What is the most important thing to save for long-term?
a. A car.
b. A house.
c. College education for the kids.
d. Retirement.
e. Other (specify):
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17. How important is it to start saving now for retirement?
a. Very important, even at the expense of present comforts.
b. Somewhat important, but present comforts are a priority.
c. Not very important. There’s plenty of time to save.
d. Not at all important. It’s too early to think about it.
18. How comfortable are you with risk when it comes to savings or investment vehicles? For instance, are you comfortable investing in stocks, which can gain or lose significant value overnight, or would you prefer lower-risk but lower-yielding investments such as savings accounts?
a. I’m very comfortable with risk.
b. I’m somewhat comfortable with investment risks.
c. Investment risks make me nervous, but not enough to avoid them completely.
d. Give me a passbook account, or give me Valium.
19. How would you feel about accepting financial assistance from your parents?
a. Very comfortable.
b. Somewhat comfortable.
c. Somewhat uncomfortable.
d. Very uncomfortable.
20. How would you feel about accepting financial assistance from your spouse’s parents?
a. Very comfortable.
b. Somewhat comfortable.
c. Somewhat uncomfortable.
d. Very uncomfortable.
21. How would you feel if your spouse made more money than you?
a. It would not bother me.
b. It would bother me a little.
c. It would bother me a lot.
22. How would you feel if you made more money than your spouse?
a. It would not bother me.
b. It would bother me a little.
c. It would bother me a lot.
23. What do you think of having a prenuptial agreement?
a. Great idea.
b. Horrible idea.
c. It doesn’t matter to me either way.
24. Do you plan to have children? If so, do you want one of you to quit or scale back work hours to take care of the kids, at least while they are young?
a. Yes.
b. No.
c. I don’t plan to have children.
25. If you expect one of you will quit or scale back, how will you decide which of you that will be?
a. It will be me.
b. It will be my spouse.
c. It will depend on who makes the least money or has the least career potential.
d. Nobody’s quitting or scaling back.
26. If you don’t expect to quit or scale back, but do expect to have children, what will you do when your day-care provider or nanny is unavailable on a work day--or when your child is sick and needs a parent to stay home?
a. We’ll take turns.
b. The person who has the most job flexibility will stay home.
c. We’re going to have to decide whose career is most important and accept that the other person’s career may suffer as a result.
27. Will your method of making money decisions change if only one of you is working?
a. Not at all.
b. Yes. The person who is working ought to have more say in how the money is spent.
28. If you just won $1,000 in a lottery, what would you do?
a. I’d save it all.
b. I’d save most of it, but spend a little.
c. I’d save a little, but spend most of it.
d. I’d spend it all.
29. How do you feel about spending money?
a. I like to spend money, and I don’t particularly mind if I have to go into debt to do it.
b. I like to spend money when I have it. But I won’t borrow to buy things.
c. I’m only comfortable spending money when I know that I have more than enough in savings and no debts.
d. I can spend money to buy necessities, but I am uncomfortable making big purchases. I always feel that the money ought to be saved instead.
30. Should your spouse get your approval before making an extravagant purchase, such as a $500 dress or set of golf clubs?
a. Yes.
b. No.
c. He / she needs permission unless it’s a gift for me.
31. What would you do if your spouse didn’t approve of your having made an extravagant purchase?
a. I would return it immediately.
b. I would return it if I couldn’t change my spouse’s mind.
c. I would try to change my spouse’s mind, but keep it regardless.
d. I would pout.
32. How often do you use a credit card?
a. Constantly.
b. Frequently.
c. Infrequently.
d. Never.
33. How do you use credit cards?
a. I use credit cards for everything. They’re more convenient than cash. But I pay the full balance each month.
b. I use them to buy things that I can’t afford and I usually carry a balance.
c. I use them only to buy things that I know I can pay off quickly.
e. I use credit cards for emergencies and special occasions only.
34. When did you last review your credit report?
a. Within the last year.
b. Within the past two years.
c. Never.
d. What’s a credit report?
e. Once, long ago, in a galaxy far away.
35. How do you feel about exchanging answers to this quiz--and other financial information, such as your credit report and tax returns--with your prospective spouse?
a. Eager.
b. Comfortable.
c. Embarrassed but willing.
d. Don’t go there.
