How to talk money with your spouse-to-be

(ARA) - Will you raise your kids with a particular religion, will you both register with the same political party and how will you arrange reception seating to ensure your new mother-in-law is content with who is at her table and where she will sit? Getting married generates no shortage of opportunities to have important conversations with your spouse-to-be.

Maybe you can postpone or even dodge altogether some of those talks, but at least one potentially challenging conversation can actually help ensure your marital bliss down the road - the talk about finances. Numerous polls and studies have shown that money is one of the top reasons couples fight, that it generates more stress in a marriage than almost any topic other than children and is a deciding factor in a large percentage of breakups.

Making sure you're both on the same financial page before the wedding can help ensure that post "I do" money talks will be less divisive and stressful. And, the good news is that establishing a sound financial footing for the future is not nearly as complicated as you might fear.

The financial experts at SBLI USA Mutual Life Insurance Company offer some advice:

Start with a budget

If you've lived alone as a single for a while, you may already have your own budget, but now you are balancing income and expenses for two people. If you combine your income and expenses, you'll need to combine your budgets too.

Write down everything each of you spends every month, taking into account housing, food, utilities, transportation, student loans, credit card balances, car payments, taxes and nonessential spending. Next, consider what your financial goals are - do you want to save for a down payment on a house? Are you content to rent and instead focus on paying down revolving debt? Once you determine what your shared goals are, you can adjust your budget accordingly, reducing spending on nonessential items and focusing on spending that moves you toward your overall financial goal.

Establish an emergency fund

One reason so many families and couples suffered greatly in this recession was because they had little or no emergency funds set aside. An emergency fund helps ensure that you and your partner are secure should something happen, like one of you loses a job or experiences a serious health issue. Agree on how much you want to save for "a rainy day;" experts advise you should save 5 to 10 percent of your income in a joint savings account.