Amanda Petersen* was living the good life in suburban Detroit. The 40-year-old mother of two was the family breadwinner. A senior executive in a real estate development firm, Petersen’s $200K job paid a generous bonus, offered stock options and a profit-sharing plan. It meant private school for the kids and enabled her to go on […]

When you get down to basics, marriage is about money. Pounding hearts, sweet nothings and lazy Sundays in bed are all well and good, but legally, a marriage creates one financial entity where there once were two. So it makes sense that the economic downturn would affect all stages of marriage, from the beginnings (the […]

Fear brings out the worst in people, and marriage certainly brought out the worst in me.
Unlike most young women I knew, I was less than thrilled to be going from a “me” to a “we.” Don’t get me wrong. I loved Michael, the man I was marrying, but I wasn’t used to taking others into […]

If Hollywood is to be believed, dating is a grandiose practice replete with lavish meals, fine wines, and front-row seats to the Broadway show (or opera or concert or art opening) of the season. For those of us who don’t make millions, though, such refined romance is just that: the stuff of movies.
Living on a […]

Nookie? It’s gonna cost you. But whether that cost is in the form of condoms, taxi rides, or that wonderful social lubricant known as Pabst Blue Ribbon is up to you.
Nerve.com asked nine people to track their sex-related budgets for one month and the results range from 0$ to hundreds of dollars […]

If you came to Love Buzz hoping for a respite from the financial doom and gloom of the day, stop reading now. We can’t get the market’s dire state out of our minds either.
So, in light (in heavy, really) of this, here’s a Recession Roundup for you.
The Alpha Consumer reports that one in five adult […]

That man who expects his wife to stay home tending to the pot roast and the toddlers? He’s raking in more dough than you.
In the most aggravating news of the week, the BBC reports men who believe a woman’s place is in the home, and that women who work cause higher rates of juvenile […]

As the economy slows the cost of a divorce increases. Job loss. Mortgage defaults. Slowing housing market. They all factor in when going through a divorce. Is divorce becoming a luxury? With the high price tag on divorce, some couples have gone to the extreme. Many couples continue living together until they can afford a divorce. Some couples even reconcile because they simply cannot afford the cost of a divorce. One attorney recalls a client who moved into the computer server room in his office because he couldn’t afford a new place. Many couples today are legally separating until they iron out their financial issues and settle debts.

According to the New York Times, when it comes to marriage, financial compatibility is more important than romantic compatibility. The paper posits that even though these days love usually takes precedent over loot, “marriage at its core is still a financial union” and your partner’s spending habits have a massive impact on your monetary situation and happiness. They quote a divorce lawyer who says money is a “huge factor in breaking up marriages.” Hopefully you’ll marry your financial soul mate, but if you don’t, the Times has some hints for pecuniary harmony.

In college it occurred to me that, if I wanted to, I could be rich when I grew up.
No, there wasn’t a “Eureka!” moment where I thought I might become an i-banker, a corporate lawyer or an arms dealer. What I mean is I realized I could marry somebody rich.
I grew up pretty class-oblivious, sheltered […]