conversation: User (AdministrativeBasis): "My SO and I have always intended to NOT get married, for personal reasons. We also don’t want children, which is the primary reason most people I know get married. But, we are planning to buy a home this fall after 3+ years of renting together, and I’ve read a lot of conflicting advice on how to handle a mortgage with the parties are unmarried.\n\nAside from making the mortgage/deed process simpler, are there any other financial benefits to marriage? I know this sub is full of some of the most practical people on Reddit, so I’m hoping to get some unbiased advice. If there are tangible benefits, it will likely outweigh our emotional reasons for not wanting to get married.\n\n(If it matters, we each have a car payment and a student loan payment, but almost no credit card debt. He makes 50k, I make about 40k, and we split our expenses 50/50. We have entirely separate finances, and would definitely prefer to keep them that way.)"
  Self: "If the two of you both own a house, and you are not married, and one of you has a nasty creditor (car accident, etc), they can attach to the house and force a sale. If you are married, they can't.\n\nSpouses also have a lot more power and protection than nonspouses when you die or become incapacitated.\n\nMarried couples get to do a lot of things jointly that nonmarried people can't do."
  SkelterHelter68 (SkelterHelter68): "Depends on the state.  This is absolutely not true in Texas, where the homestead provisions protect you from such non-mortgage related attachments."
  