Why Future Earnings Aren’t Just a Hypothetical
You’re not rich yet, but give it a minute. Maybe you’re a startup founder eating ramen now but negotiating acquisition terms next quarter. Maybe your freelance writing is turning into a six-figure ghostwriting gig. Whatever your trajectory, those future dollars can become a point of contention if things go sideways later.Here’s the kicker: in many places, anything you earn during a marriage is considered joint property—unless you’ve clearly specified otherwise. That means your ex could walk away with half of the company you hadn’t even dreamed up when you got married. A prenup lets you designate future earnings as separate property before they ever exist. It’s the legal equivalent of calling dibs on money you haven’t made yet.
Inheritances: You Can’t Choose Your Relatives, But You Can Protect Their Gifts
Let’s say your grandmother leaves you a lakeside cottage and a collection of extremely judgmental porcelain dolls. The house is the asset—hopefully appreciating. The dolls are emotionally cursed and declining in value. A prenup allows you to designate that inheritance as yours alone, immune from division.Here’s where things get messy without a prenup: if that inheritance is mingled with joint assets—say, you use the inheritance to renovate your marital home—then it can become a shared asset by accident. Now your spouse doesn’t just get part of your house in the divorce; they also get to co-own Grandma’s haunted doll hutch.
Drafting with a Crystal Ball (That’s Just a Metaphor. Please Don’t Use One)
A good prenup doesn’t just document your current finances; it anticipates change. That’s why the best prenups are forward-looking. They’re designed by people who understand that your financial life might balloon, morph, or even implode—and they plan accordingly.That might mean:
- Outlining what counts as marital versus separate income as your career progresses
- Detailing how investment growth or capital gains will be treated
- Clarifying how future gifts and family inheritances will be preserved
Avoiding the Great Financial Merge
One common mistake is assuming that just not putting your spouse’s name on an asset keeps it separate. That’s not always the case. Joint accounts, refinancing, or simply using joint funds to improve a property can turn a separate asset into a joint one. It’s not just about what you *own*, but how you *use* it.A prenup can explicitly address:
- What happens if one partner invests time or money in the other’s business
- How you’ll handle shared expenses without accidentally co-owning everything
- Who keeps what if things end and whether appreciation on certain assets stays separate
It’s Not Just About Divorce
Most people think prenups are exclusively for divorce scenarios, like financial lifeboats on a ship you hope won’t sink. But they also provide clarity during the marriage itself. When it’s already agreed who owns what and how things should be handled, it can prevent a thousand tiny resentments from building up like mold behind a shared bathroom cabinet.Think of it as a financial user manual for your marriage. Sure, nobody wants to open the manual until something’s making a weird noise—but if it’s already written, you don’t have to improvise when it matters most.
Prenups can also guide things like:
- Debt responsibility—so your spouse doesn’t end up funding your failed artisanal soap empire
- Career sacrifices, like one partner stepping back from work to raise children
- Estate and succession planning if one or both spouses have children from a previous relationship
Don’t DIY This One
Yes, you can buy prenup templates online. And yes, that’s about as smart as buying parachute instructions off Etsy. If you want your agreement to be enforceable and actually worth the paper it’s printed on, both parties need independent legal advice. That’s not just a formality—it’s often a requirement.A good lawyer will ensure that your agreement meets jurisdictional standards, reflects your actual intentions, and—this is important—won’t get thrown out in court because you drafted it after two glasses of wine and a YouTube tutorial.
Also, remember: transparency is key. Trying to hide assets or lowball valuations can result in a prenup being invalidated altogether. If you’re going to do this, do it like a grown-up. A paranoid grown-up, perhaps—but a responsible one.
Love Doesn’t Need to Be Blind (To Money)
You’re not signing a prenup because you plan to fail. You’re signing one because even smart, kind, emotionally intelligent people get divorced—and even amicable breakups can get messy when money enters the picture.It’s not cynical to protect yourself. It’s mature. It’s proactive. And frankly, it shows a level of respect for both yourself and your partner that should be the baseline for any long-term commitment. Planning for a worst-case scenario doesn’t make you a pessimist. It makes you prepared. And, in all likelihood, less likely to end up fighting over who gets the air fryer.
Better Safe Than Half
No one ever gets into a relationship thinking, “Wow, I hope this ends with a protracted legal battle and several thousand dollars in hourly fees.” But things happen. People evolve. Careers take off or implode. Families get involved. Emotions change. Circumstances twist themselves into shapes you never imagined.A well-structured prenup won’t solve every problem, but it does a damn good job of making sure you don’t lose your shirt—or your grandma’s lakeside cottage—if love takes a left turn.
It’s not unromantic to protect your future. If anything, it frees both of you up to build something lasting, without the low-grade anxiety of financial ambiguity humming in the background.
Get it done. Lock it in. Then go be in love—with a little less risk and a lot more clarity.
Article kindly provided by prenup.ca