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Learn to Love the Prenup
Signing on this dotted line could safeguard your financial future.
by Corinne Asturias
When I had my kids, I bought ipecac syrup to keep in the medicine cabinet on the off chance that one of them might swallow something potentially fatal. Twenty years later, the bottle’s still there, its seal unbroken, my heart full of thanks.
We hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Like any halfway intelligent person, we pay our insurance premiums, get our mammograms, fasten our seat belts, and go through life.
So what is it about a prenuptial agreement that sends the perfectly rational among us into a giant, collective cringe?
The evidence for their usefulness, accrued in countless lawyerly tomes and how-tos since the 1980s, is overwhelming.
We know that, in the U.S., half of all marriages will end in divorce. We know that none of those newlywed couples beaming with promise from the wedding pages dream a split is in their future. We know that when things go awry in an intimate relationship, they can go from harrowing to hideous, overnight. And we know that under the cold, steely gaze of the law, fairness can be reduced to a fairy tale.
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1 Marriage Without Monogamy: Part Two // Feb 29, 2008 at 11:31 am
[…] because we’ve decided to do so without getting legally married (see Marriage Without Monogamy), a prenuptial agreement is obviously out of the question. And yet neither one of us likes the idea of building a life […]
2 Kristi // Feb 14, 2007 at 8:40 am
Recently divorced with a prenup. This document allowed my husband to cheat on me with 3 different women (that I know of - if there’s 3 rats, there’s probably 10) for over 3 years and because of the prenup - he was not responsible for alimony! I wish I’d been more forthright in what was necessary to be included in the document.
3 Anonymous // May 23, 2006 at 11:16 am
I am 22 female and agree very strongly to having a pre nup. I would compare it to wearing a seatbelt for saftety, not that you plan for a wreck or even want one but, the future is unknown. I also believe an indiviual should be secure enough to know that a paper doesn’t make the relationship but, the indiviuals apart of it. If someone loves me they are marring me not MY ASSETS!!! -VMS