Financial Stability In Marriage

Death or divorce can end a marriage with a moment's notice, and disability could cripple the earning spouse's income or ability to find work at all.  A husband or wife could turn to abusive behaviors even if there was no precedent evidence.  What will happen to the spouse who relied on his or her partner for all things regarding finances?  They would likely be socially disregarded or fall into homelessness in the case of the first two possibilities if they cannot obtain their own income.  In the case of disability befalling their still-living partner, they would nonetheless be forced to become far more involved in earning money to now support the person who once took that on his or her shoulders.

There are many ways a spouse's very life or presence in their partner's life could be snuffed out.  If not their life, their bodily or mental functioning could be diminished at any time with no warning whatsoever.  A couple that does not prioritize preparations for such an unfortunate future is automatically far more vulnerable to many kinds of suffering.  It is not an expression of dissatisfaction or suspicion of the other if one of them tries to maintain an income even if the other generates enough money to sustain the entire couple.  No, it can even be an expression of love to labor with the intention of taking care of them in the future or not falling into poverty if they were to die.

There is also the possibility that one spouse would become abusive or cold over time, whatever their motivation for doing so.  This is absolutely not something only wives need to be equipped to outlast: husbands are people and can of course be victims of sexual, physical, verbal, or emotional abuse of various sorts.  Each partner would need to be able to live in such an event without being dependent on an abusive person for the money or other resources they need to survive.  Regardless if a divorce follows, men and women would have to secure or already have some semblance of their own financial independence, and it is far easier to already have saved up money for emergencies.

As a couple, there is always the possibility of earning and saving more money together than an individual person could on their own.  There are just multiple circumstances that could make it a necessity for both members to have financial stability.  Developing this ahead of time is clearly ideal, and for those who think of these things and intentionally do nothing to live out these facts, they might one day find themselves in a terrible scenario where a relationship they perhaps had hoped would never sour has become the greatest moral and practical threat to their wellbeing.  Worsening economic conditions only make this more urgent.