When Is The Best Time To Level With Your Partner About Your Finances?

Before you get into a serious, long-term commitment with any partner, especially one where you’ll both be financially responsible for things like rent, loans, a mortgage, or retirement savings, it’s important to get “financially naked” with them. But when is the best time to do so?

Photo by NoHoDamon.

“Financially naked” is a phrase coined by Erin Lowry of Broke Millennial, where she describes that ever-so vulnerable, raw conversations with your significant other where you both openly talk about your incomes, debts, financial goals, and financial responsibilities. Maybe it’s the credit card debt you’ve been hiding from your significant other before you move in together, or your dismal credit score you’ve been keeping from your spouse that’s only coming to light now that you’re considering buying a house together. Maybe those things should have been addressed earlier — or maybe it’s not an issue until it needs to be.

Tell us, when do you think the best time to level with your partner about your finances? When do they deserve a window into your income and debts, and what kind of window do you give them? Should they get the keys to your Mint account and see everything, or do you still give them a filtered view? Let us know in the discussions.

When Should You Get “Financially Naked” With a Partner? [Apartment Therapy]