Marriage and Money: What's the Best Way to Join Finances with Your Fiance?

--> Marriage moneyAs my wedding day approaches, I am beginning to understand that marriage is not just a union of love; it's also a joint venture that includes, at least to some extent, the combining of financial assets. Cue the discussion of ... The Shared Bank Account.

It's at moments like these when watching a chick flick becomes extremely appealing to me, and football games become enthralling to my fiancée. Far be it from us to underplay the value of distraction when such emotionally charged, grown-up topics are at hand.

For us, the conversation started when we established a joint account for wedding expenses. Our families had generously agreed to help us pay for the nuptials, so we deposited those funds in the account and tracked our budget together.

But after dipping a toe into the waters of joint finances, my fiancée recoiled from wading in any further. "I don't want to lose my independence," said my rugged Midwestern individualist.

Is there any one method that works best for newlyweds? Perhaps not: But before walking down the aisle together, you ought to make a trip arm-in-arm through the marble bank foyer to address your financial future.

To Join or Not to Join?

When two people agree to link their lives together, they take vows of trust and partnership. When one refuses to open a joint bank account, it can undermine that feeling of trust.

"There can be questions of why doesn't he or she want to have a joint bank account," said Deborah Wilburn, author of For Richer Not Poorer: The Newlywed's Financial Survival Guide (Perigee Trade, 2005). "What's being hidden? It reflects on trust and how you feel about this partnership. And if the accounts are separate, they're wondering, 'Well, don't you trust me?' Then it's up to each person to be completely clean about what they have and what's going on."

On the other hand, to leave someone a chunk of their financial independence can reflect an even greater level of trust.

Either way, whether you officially pool your financial resources or not, fiscal transparency in marriage is important. Experts agree you need to come clean about your financial status and history before you tie the knot.

"You don't want to be hashing this out after you get married," Wilburn said. " You want to exchange your spreadsheet of your assets and your debts. You don't want any big surprises -- like finding out on the honeymoon that he has $17,000 of credit card debt."

The Importance of Full Disclosure

Stewart Welch III, author of The 10 Minute Guide to Personal Finances for Newlyweds (Macmillan/Spectrum, 1996) and founder of wealth management firm The Welch Group, said the time to start talking seriously about finances begins when the couple gets engaged. Couples should list all their assets and liabilities, as well as major anticipated expenses like graduate school or a new car.

"At the stage you get engaged, you have to have full financial disclosure and make a list of everything you own and everything you owe," Welch said. "The couples that don't do that -- it comes to light too late, and in way too many cases where it is very unpleasant."

Putting all assets, debts and income on the table will give you a clearer picture of where you stand, and what you'll have left after you cover your basic expenses. It also gives you a starting point for setting larger priorities on spending: What will you earmark for saving to buy a house, going to grad school, taking vacations or just having a nice dinner out on occasion? How well do your ideas on these subjects match with those of your spouse-to-be? It's important to find out.

Welch notes that couples may bring different budgeting tactics to a marriage, but he suggests that setting up a good old-fashioned spreadsheet can do the trick in most situations.

Once you've done all this, it's time to take the plunge. To offset cold feet, you may want to take baby steps into the joint pool.

Little by Little: The Three-Pot System

When people get married these days, they've usually been managing their own money for awhile. It can be a psychological hurdle to give up that control. For this reason, many new spouses acclimate themselves to the joining of finances through what's called the "three-pot" system.

"Some couples like to ease into it, so they'll open a joint account and keep individual accounts," Wilburn said. "They may have separate savings accounts and agree on how much they're putting into the joint account until they get a better sense of their partner's money style." Collective expenses like rent and utilities should come out of the collective pot; discretionary expenses like highlights or video games, the individual pots.

More accounts mean more paperwork, and there's no inherent financial advantage unless someone is coming into the marriage with excessive debt or bad credit. But if it provides a psychological advantage, having multiple pots of cash can pay.

The three-pot system can also allow couples to get used to tracking each other's expenses and give them time to find a financial rhythm.

Three-pot System, Turned Upside-Down

Not everyone agrees with the yours-mine-and-ours framework.

Welch, for one, advocates against it: He views the scenario as ripe with potential for disagreements. If one partner has the checkbook and the other has the ATM card, there could be overdrafts, for example.

"It's a formula for a conflict and for a system that's going to break down," Welch said.

Instead, he recommends a single joint "control account," from which three sub-accounts emerge: a "get rich" account for 401(k)-type retirement savings and the like; a "live rich" account that includes a discretionary spending budget for each spouse; and a programmed savings account for long-term aspirations that are not monthly, like a down-payment on a home or car.

Avoiding the Power Struggle, Emphasizing the Partnership

For newlyweds, the most important thing is to avoid a power struggle over money. "In almost 100% of the cases, one spouse is going to be earning more than the other, but the personal money they get to spend should be the same," Welch said.

If a couple keeps separate accounts and both spouses contribute equally to the joint "household expenses" account, you could end up with three pots and a Pandora's box.

If the higher earner is left with more discretionary income, "it can set up a psychological dominance," Welch said. To avoid this scenario, Welch said, each spouse would have to contribute proportionally to the joint account in a way that would leave both with equal amounts of discretionary income.

But in Welch's view, for a marriage to achieve both wedded and fiscal bliss, the partners need to remember that they can only succeed as a team: The partnership is strengthened psychologically when the joint "control" account is the initial pathway for all the money. It emphasizes the partnership and alliance of the marital bond. The three-pot system, by contrast, financially presents each spouse as a fully separate entity first, part of a team second.

Moving Forward

As my fiancée and I wrestle with the logistics of wedding planning, we are taking the financial merger slowly. Over time, no doubt, we'll devise a system that best fits our lifestyle, but for now, a more important money question looms: What kind of wedding cake should we get, and how much will we spend on the grand, multi-tiered dessert?

It's a good first big decision to have to make -- a win-win with a super-sweet value proposition.

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Source: http://www.dailyfinance.com/2012/03/02/marriage-money-joint-bank-accounts/

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APPLE: Stop Ragging On Us For Making iPhones In China -- We've Created 500,000 American Jobs


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(If you count the UPS dudes who deliver iPhones in the mail...)

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Apple, which relies on Asian contractors to manufacture its iPhones and iPads, said in a report released Friday that it has directly or indirectly created 514,000 jobs in the United States though its gadget ecosystem.

The company, which used data crunched from economists at the Analysis Group, placed the job creation in two categories.

The first comprised 304,000 jobs, including software engineers working at the Cupertino company's campus, workers in Texas who manufacture processors for Apple devices, Corning employees in Kentucky and New York who make glass for the iPhone, and United Parcel Services and FedEx workers who deliver its products to customers.

The second category comprised 210,000 independent application-development jobs that exist as a result of the company's iPhone and iPad devices.

Separately, the company said it has generated more than $4 billion in business for developers who make apps for its iPhone and iPad devices.

"Throughout our history, Apple has created entirely new products _ and entirely new industries _ by focusing on innovation," Apple said on its website. "As a result, we've created or supported more than 500,000 jobs for U.S. workers: from the engineer who helped invent the iPad to the delivery person who brings it to your door."

The report follows criticism of working conditions for Chinese employees of Foxconn Technology Group, which assembles products for Apple and other major electronics companies, including Hewlett-Packard and Dell.

In a January report about its supply-chain partners in Asia, Apple said it found examples of contractors employing children and forcing employees to work exceedingly long hours. Apple hired the nonprofit Fair Labor Association to perform on-the-ground inspections of Foxconn, which employs more than 1 million workers in China. Foxconn has also come under pressure after a number of employee suicides in 2010 and a plant explosion that killed four employees last year.

Last month, Apple CEO Tim Cook, speaking at a Goldman Sachs technology conference, said, "Our commitment is simple: Every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely. Apple's suppliers must live up to this to do business with Apple."

Greg Linden, a researcher at the Haas School of Business at the University of California-Berkeley, questioned the legitimacy of Apple taking credit for some jobs, such as those of UPS and FedEx employees who deliver the company's products. "Those jobs are questionable to the extent they'd exist whether or not Apple existed," he said.

However, Linden added, Apple has every right to take credit for other jobs indirectly tied to its success.

"The app phenomenon is real," he said. "Those are good, solid jobs, and they deserve all the credit for them. They jump-started the whole app ecosystem."

Apple, whose market capitalization surpassed $500 billion on Wednesday, said the number of its employees based in the United States has more than quadrupled in the past decade, from less than 10,000 in 2002 to more than 47,000 today.

A study by Linden and other researchers found that the creation, production and selling of Apple's iPod in 2006 created 41,000 jobs worldwide and an estimated more than $1 billion-plus in wages. Though only 14,000 of those jobs were in the United States, American workers garnered $750 million in wages, more than double what overseas workers earned.

"Apple has turned out to be a major money-making machine, especially for those who have skills in intellectual property," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies.

Roger Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Associates, said the report reflects a new era at the company following the death of co-founder Steve Jobs last fall.

"Steve Jobs was clear: He wasn't going to help people in the liberal way, through charitable donations or being a kind person," Kay said. "He was going to help people by making great products they'd want to buy. You may be seeing some of the post-Steve Jobs ethos. They don't have their mesmerizing leader who stuns everyone and makes them compliant. They have to communicate more. It's important to get in front of this."

___

(c)2012 the San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)

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Former College Student Sues School Because Her Roommate Was Having Too Much Sex


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Lindsay Blankmeyer is seeking up to $150,000 in damages and fees claiming that Stonehill College in Massachusetts did not assist her in dealing with her overly sexual roommate, The AP reports.

Blankmeyer, who according to the criminal complaint suffers from depression and attention deficit disorder, first approached Stonehill officials with a complaint about her roommate, Laura, violating the school's rules by having sex with her boyfriend without her permission. The actual intercourse and cyber sex had by Laura in Blankmeyer's presence exacerbated her depression to the point of her becoming suicidal, alleges the complaint.

Blankmeyer alleges that the school did not provide her with appropriate alternate accommodation leading to her taking leave of absence and later finishing her degree remotely from New York. 

According to CBS New York, the director of Communications and Media Relations at Stonehill Martin McGovern issued the following statement, “We are reviewing the complaint, which focuses on a previous roommate issue. There are two sides, and sometimes more, to every story. We will be responding to the complaint."  

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