• Have your own assets such as a home, a portfolio, or retirement funds
  
• Own all or part of a business
  
• Have children from a previous marriage
  
• Are wealthier than your soon-to-be
  
• Are pursuing a degree that might increase your income dramatically
  
• Foresee major potential in your job or profession
  
• Want to have peace of mind

Make sure you approach this subject before the engagement. If you and your significant other are open with each other, the approach shouldn't be a problem. Make sure you have separate attorneys, and that you finalize details at least one month before the wedding. Many prenuptials have been thrown out of court when posted at the last minute, due to a factor called "coercion," or for frivolous requests.

Most marriages last no more than ten to twenty years (does that sound like a jail sentence?), so be aware of all the morbid possibilities, including those enforced by your state, his state, and both your states of mind. Many money problems are basic. In fact, financial problems are run-of-the-mill and occur in just about every marriage. Most issues can be resolved with a less severe measure than divorce. But what happens when outside forces conspire to mess with our happy homes? Take a look at what the Federal Government managed over the past century:

1907: The Expatriation Act states that a female U.S. citizen who marries an alien loses her U.S. citizenship and takes on the nationality of her husband. This is repealed in 1922, but citizenship is not restored until 1936. By this time, many states allowed (allowed!) women to own their own property, so can you imagine what this did to her assets? 1918: Women married to German citizens had their property confiscated. 1920: The women who had their property confiscated were allowed to reclaim their property under certain conditions. This happened again in 1948 for women married to Bulgarian, German, Hungarian, Japanese, and Romanian citizens. 1932: The National Recovery Act (NRA) limits the number of federal workers to one per family; so many women lose their jobs.

Outside of the Federal government, each individual state had its own criteria for marriage and divorce. Married Women's Property Acts were adopted in U.S. states and territories in the mid-nineteenth century, but they varied widely in intent from securing a wife's property from her husband's creditors to making her the legal owner and giving her full capacity to deal with her separate property as if unmarried.

Most of these events happened when our own mothers were mere babes - or just a gleam in our grandmother's eye. The issues seem ludicrous and impossible, and difficult to imagine. Many states today respond more favorably to women's issues such as child support collection and reprieve from an (ex) husband's debts. The sad reality is that women often get the short end of the stick when it comes to pensions, benefits, divorce, and financial property rights.

All of this gives me fuel to stay single in times of what I call "weakness of the knees." I often feel it's more beneficial financially to stay single than it would be to be married. Many of you might not agree with me, because you feel strong in your future with your intended. More power to you, and I mean that from my heart. I hope you take care of financial business first, so you can truly enjoy your happy event.

Women who live with a partner without the government sanction of that "piece of paper" to legalize your partnership have special problems we'll address next week. While you wait, you might want to check on your state's view of common law marriage and how it might affect you financially.

Until next week,
Linda Goin