Question 1

Why shouldn't women merge their finances after marriage?

Accepted Answer

Don’t be in a hurry to close your pre-marriage bank accounts to open a joint account and merge your wealth with that of the partner. Because in case of a problem in marriage, the husband can easily siphon off all the money from the joint account. Therefore, make sure you have a single account in addition to the joint account and are the primary holder even in the latter.

Also ensure that you keep all your assets from before marriage separate and do not encash all your investments as soon as you get married. Because then in case of a split, you will have your own financial backing to fall back onto instead of starting afresh. Women should have a repository of all their financial documents from before marriage so that they can control these themselves instead of depending on their husband or father.

Question 2

Why should women never leave their jobs because of marriage?

Accepted Answer

Don’t rush to quit your job right after marriage, especially if you are moving to a new city. Take your time to search well for a new job, or navigate other career options, or even try self-employment there. Financial freedom is critical in the initial stages, particularly in an arranged marriage, to maintain an economic and emotional balance in the relationship and give you the confidence and conviction to move out of the marriage if it’s not working.

Even later, it will help you in not being completely dependent on your husband for personal or household needs, basically bearing your own expenses which is so liberating and empowering at the same time. Even if you take a divorce 10-15 years down the line, if you keep working or start your own business, you would have built enough corpus and assets to survive on your own without anyone’s support.

And in case you do need to leave your job, don’t stop networking with your colleagues and other professionals in the industry. This is vital if you need to pick up the past threads and look for a job again on the breakdown of your marriage. So be excited about the best but also be ready for the worst.

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