In a recent episode of the Women & Money podcast, a listener named PBS asked Suze Orman a question many people face later in life: should she consider getting a prenuptial agreement before tying the knot with her partner?
PBS is a single mother with two adult children, ages 24 and 18, who lives with her partner. She earns over $12,000 a month and has assets totaling about $3 million, including her home, retirement savings and a rental property. Her partner, however, earns about $3,900 per month, creating a significant income gap that has led her to think deeper about the financial implications of marriage.
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Orman didn't hold back. "I would just stay living with him," she said. "I’m not sure that I would marry him. There’s really no advantage for you to marry him."
Orman pointed out that PBS could still protect her partner in the event of her passing without getting married. Tools like trusts, transfer-on-death accounts or naming him a beneficiary of her assets are all options Orman said could secure his future without the legal complexities of marriage.
Diving deeper into the complexities of prenups, Orman stated these can get messy because both parties need legal representation to guarantee that the prenuptial will hold up in court.
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Her advice wasn't solely based on finances, though. Orman felt there might be something more to the listener's question. "The real question is that you have hesitation or you wouldn’t have written to us and you’re nervous about marrying him," Orman said. She advised PBS to avoid marriage altogether if she felt any sense of nervousness or uncertainty about their financial future.
Orman's wife and co-host, KT, chimed in with an observation that adds another layer to this conversation. She speculated that PBS's adult children might be more nervous about their mother's situation than PBS herself. "They see the writing on the wall," KT remarked, possibly referring to concerns about how their mother's financial decisions could impact their inheritance or future financial stability.