Love & finances: 5 tips for enhancing your financial compatibility

With love in the air for Valentine's Day this Friday, a Bankrate study found 39% of couples who live together have combined their finances and accounts. With money being a major stress point and cause of arguments in many couples, is committing your finances with your significant other's always the right decision?

Empower Vice President for Financial Insights Vanessa Welch suggests separating money into "yours, theirs, and ours" categories and how to go about addressing this.

"A lot of people get so frustrated that they just stop talking about finances altogether. That's going to make things worse," Welch tells Brad Smith. "Here's what works: I want you to take an hour, maybe it's a Saturday while you're having coffee, and take a deep dive into your spending, into your saving, and then set a budget."

Welch underlines "joining forces" and tackling each other's debt in addition to establishing financial goals and responsibilities within the relationship.

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This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.