A study by Co-operative Legal Services found that poor lifestyle and financial planning were two main reasons that couples sought a divorce.

The study polled both married and divorced couples in hopes of pinpointing the biggest factors that lead to marital dissatisfaction and divorce.

Marital Dissatisfaction

Simply having an in-depth discussion about important family matters before deciding to tie the knot could solve many of the issues that caused marital dissatisfaction. Some of those issues include:

  • Neglecting to discuss future ambitions (60%)
  • Failing to discuss whether or not to have children (40%)
  • Failing to discuss where to live in detail (45%)

Many couples may have had surface-level conversations about the future, but the survey shows how important it is to have detailed discussions about your future plans to make sure you and your partner are truly compatible.

Christina Blacklaws, director of Family Law at The Co-operative Legal Services, said one of the many reasons couples neglect to have these conversations is because they are so focused on planning their wedding instead of thinking about their future.

“When getting engaged, couples spend so much effort planning for the wedding day of their dreams that they lose sight of the next 50 years of married life,” said Blacklaws. “Sadly, this is the underlying reason for the majority of divorces, as couples with different ideas and expectations start to drift apart and no longer connect a few years down the track.”

While wedding planning can be fun, preparing for your future life together takes some serious planning. Although, as a household, you may be drawing two incomes, couples also inherit each other’s debt once they tie the knot. Couples that fail to plan for the future may soon see their marital assets and debts divided in a divorce.

Reasons for Divorce

When examining only the divorced couples, researchers noticed that an extra-marital affair ranked as the top reason for seeking a divorce. Other reasons include (respondents could select more than one answer):

  • Affair (33%)
  • Selfishness (22%)
  • Personality traits (14%)
  • Abusive behavior (14%)
  • Different expectations from life (13%)
  • Job loss or debt (12%)
  • Interfering in-laws (11%)
  • Got married too young (9%)

Family Law Attorney comments

In Minnesota, all assets and debts incurred by couples during the marriage are considered “marital” and are divided up equitably.  This does not necessarily mean that these assets and debts would be divided up equally, but oftentimes judges will equally split the marital assets and debts accumulated by couples while they were married.

When couples are facing divorce because of financial issues, they should be aware that just because one party had bad spending habits and has a credit card in their name alone, because that is a marital debt, it will be divided equitably between the parties.

Couples in Minnesota should know that once they are married, all of their money is also considered marital.  A person who makes twice as much as their spouse and keeps “their” money in a separate checking account in their name alone is not shielded from this money being put back into the marital pot and divided in the dissolution.

Marriage is a big decision, and there are a multitude of consequences that follow a couple’s desire to be legally bonded to one another.  This article discusses that many couples spend the majority of their time discussing and planning their wedding rather than discussing and planning their actual marriage.  Couples may want to consider having numerous discussions about how they envision the finances of their marriage, and may even benefit from visiting with a financial planner about their future together.

Related source: Telegraph.uk