Do it now: Find out what marriage means in your area. Depending on your state, province or country, marriage means different things, legally. In Canada, for instance, the Family Law Act is different for every province.

现在要做的事：了解婚姻在你所在的地区意味着什么。根据你所在的州、省或国家的不同，婚姻的法律意义也有所差异。例如，加拿大每个省的《家事法》各不相同。

“It could be that the assets you came into the marriage with are yours, and yours forever,” Chung said. “It could be that after a certain period of time, those assets are up for splitting 50/50, which is a big concern when somebody has built up those assets over many decades.”

“你的婚前财产可能永远属于你自己。”茱莉亚•钟说，“也有可能经过一段时间，你就要与配偶平分财产。如果一个人已经攒了几十年的钱，他必然非常担心这一问题。”

The same goes for different US states. “Every state has different rules on what happens when you get married, when you divorce and when you die,” said Vickie Adams, a financial planner in California in the US. “Marriage is a contract. You definitely want to understand how that will impact you.”

美国不同的州同样存在这种问题。“每个州都针对结婚、离婚和死亡制定了不同的规定。”加州财务规划师维基•亚当斯(Vickie Adams)说，“婚姻是一份协议，你肯定想知道这究竟会对你产生何种影响。”

Review your government benefits. Depending on where you live and your situation, marrying could affect the government benefits you’re receiving. In the US, a spouse’s income may affect your supplemental security income or cause you to lose the benefits — or any financial support from a previous marriage — you’re getting as a divorced spouse.

评估财政福利。根据你所在地方不同，以及你所处的环境差异，婚姻将对你获得的财政福利产生影响。在美国，一对夫妇的收入可能会影响他们获得的社会安全补助金，甚至会导致你失去以离婚人士的身份获得的福利——或者从之前的婚姻中得到的财务支持。

In Canada, if you’re receiving the Guaranteed Income Supplement, a spouse’s income could place you out of the income bracket for the benefit. It’s a good idea to check with a financial planner or with your government benefits office directly.

在加拿大，如果目前可以获得保障性收入补助金，那么在增加了配偶的收入后，你可能就将无法继续享受这项福利。最好能咨询财务规划师，或者直接咨询政府福利部门。

Think about taxes. How does combining incomes affect your tax bracket and what you’ll owe going forward? “Suddenly you have double the income,” Pressman said. “It’s conceivable that you would move up one tax bracket for at least part of your income.”

税务问题。夫妻的合并收入将如何影响你的税率等级，以及你今后的纳税额？“你突然之间多了一份收入，”普雷斯曼说，“税率等级难免会提升一个等级，至少会有部分收入受到影响。”

Consider a prenuptial agreement. This is a document that clearly specifies what happens in case the marriage doesn’t work out. Going to a lawyer and getting a prenup may not seem romantic. “But it’s the most romantic thing you can do,” Chung said. “You’re saying, ‘You are my loved one and protecting your assets is important to me’.”

考虑签订婚前协议。这份文件将对婚姻破裂带来的影响作出明确规定。找律师起草婚前协议似乎不够浪漫。“但这其实是你能做的最浪漫的事情，”茱莉亚•钟说，“你等于在说，‘你是我的挚爱，保护你的财产对我十分重要。’”

Discuss estate planning and other wishes. It may seem morbid, but linking your lives legally has an impact on what happens to your assets when you die. So, you'll need to modify any estate planning documents already in place to reflect your new family situation, or create new ones. For instance, many people with children from a previous marriage want to ensure that their children will still inherit something after they die.

讨论遗产计划和其他愿望。这似乎有点不吉利，但结为法律上的夫妻会对你身后的财产分配产生影响。所以，你需要根据新组建的家庭状况调整已经制定的遗产计划，或者制定一份新计划。例如，很多在之前的婚姻中有孩子的人都希望在去世后由自己的孩子继承遗产。

“Something that I’ve seen first-hand is where second marriages occur, and one spouse passes away and all of the assets were titled jointly, so they all go to the surviving spouse,” Pressman said. “Then the surviving spouse says, ‘Hey, I’m not leaving anything to their kids,’ and suddenly you’ve got this big problem.”

“我亲眼看到过这种情况：一对夫妇二婚后，其中一方去世了，但由于所有财产都署上了两个人的名字，所以这些财产都归健在的一方所有。”普雷斯曼说，“后来，健在的一方说，‘我不会给他们的孩子留下任何东西。’这时就会出大问题。”

In some countries, there is the opposite issue. In France, children are “protected heirs,” so they are entitled to receive a proportion of their natural parent’s estate. “In the absence of appropriate planning being undertaken, if the survivor is a step-parent, he or she may be poorly protected,” said Daphne Foulkes, a partner with the Spectrum IFA Group in France.

某些国家的问题恰恰相反。在法国，子女是“受保护的继承人”，所以他们有权继承其亲生父母的一部分遗产。“由于没有制定适当的规划，倘若健在的人是继父或继母，他或她就有可能得不到充分保护。”法国 Spectrum IFA Group 合伙人达芙妮•福克斯(Daphne Foulkes)说。

If it’s important to you, take care of it legally — and make it official. “If it’s not written and in a legal, binding document, it means nothing,” Pressman said.

如果此事对你很重要，那就要合法而明确地处理此事。“如果没有书面内容，也没有签订约束性的法律文件，那就毫无意义。”普雷斯曼说。

Do it later: Revisit your beneficiaries. Once you tie the knot, go back through all of your accounts with beneficiaries — retirement accounts, insurance policies — and make sure the beneficiaries are still whom you want them to be. You may want to take an ex-spouse off the paperwork, for instance, or split assets equally between your children and your new spouse.

以后要做的事：重新考虑你的财产受益人。一旦再婚，就应该认真了解你所有账户的受益人——包括退休金账户和保险政策——确保这些受益人仍然符合你的意愿。例如，你或许希望将前配偶从文件中删除，或者让你的子女与新配偶平分自己的财产。

Do it smarter: Sit down with your family. Ideally this should happen before you get married, but if it doesn’t, it should definitely happen after the wedding vows. Let your children know what’s happening with the family finances and how your marriage affects them — because they probably have questions.

讲究方法：与家人坐下来沟通。在理想情况下，应该在结婚前采取这些措施，但如果未能实现，也必须在结婚之后完成这些事情。应该让你的孩子知道家庭财务状况将面临什么状况，你的婚姻会对他们产生何种影响——因为他们很可能会有疑问。

“As a rule of thumb, the best thing we can do is be as transparent as possible,” Chung said. “You can say, ‘I’m creating a plan, and these are the concerns that the lawyers brought up, and these are the ways we’re talking about dealing with them.’”

“经验表明，最好的办法就是尽可能透明。”茱莉亚•钟说，“你可以告诉他们，‘我制定了一份计划，这些都是律师提出的担忧，而这些则是我们探讨的解决方案。’”