Charlotte Divorce Lawyer Blog

Couples who cohabitate will innately share more of their daily lives than couples who live apart. After seeing another person day in and day out and sharing in the less glamorous parts of that person's life, couples who get too comfortable with each other can begin to take one another for granted. Cohabitating couples should learn to keep communication open in order to insure that one of them does not feel taken for granted or underappreciated.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #8: Don't become too comfortable with comfortable." »

Couples should discuss in advance how they will act and diffuse heated situations in the future. Although no two people ever plan to reach an impasse in a nasty fight, planning for the worst is better than being confronted with a situation in which neither partner is willing to forgive or forget.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #7: Plan for the worst." »

After two people move in together, it may be easy for them to spend time mainly with one another and to neglect their friends and past contacts. The best advice is to not live in your partner's shadow and to maintain your own life, so as to not fall into a rut in your relationship.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #6: Have your own life." »

When two individuals begin to live together, they must learn to accept compromise as part of a regular routine. Individuals should learn to compromise on the issues that are least important to them in order to win on the issues that are more important to them. Cohabitating means learning to work toward the happiness of both parties as often as possible.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #5: Learn to compromise." »

Couples should document everything that needs to be done in the home, determine who can either most proficiently or most easily complete each task, and divide up the chores accordingly. Couples should factor in issues such as who works the most or who contributes more financially to the household.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #4: Assign tasks. " »

Pre-arranged legal documents usually make things easier on both parties if or when a couple breaks up. These agreements can determine who gets the furniture, the home, the car, and any additional items belonging to both parties. Cohabitation agreements can also include provisions spelling out what happens if one partner is unfaithful or abusive. Most importantly, a legal agreement can clear up money disputes before they even arise in post-separation disputes.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #3: Seriously consider making a cohabitation agreement." »

Finances are the number one issue that couples fight about, whether married or not. Cohabitating partners should sit down to make a budget and determine who will pay for rent, groceries, and anything else either partner will need. The couple should also decide whether to open joint accounts or maintain separate accounts, and how to accommodate for one person making more money than the other.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #2: Talk about money." »

The first survival tip for cohabitating couples is to actually define the relationship before agreeing to share a residence together. When couples move in together, they should seriously discuss what it means to both of them. They should define what kind of commitment they are making to one another, whether they are building a future, and how they are going to handle daily life. Furthermore, they should discuss how to describe the living arrangement to friends and family.

Continue reading "Cohabitation Survival Tip #1: Define the relationship." »

Charlotte Divorce Lawyer Blog will focus on 8 tips for surving cohabitation. These tips for surviving cohabitation are from an article on Yahoo entitled "Going Cohab? 8 survival tips for staying together." These tips will be discussed in subsequent blog posts to follow. To cohabitate or to marry? That is the question. If the answer is to cohabitate, maybe these tips will help you survive.

According to new figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of couples getting married plunged to an all-time low in 2009. Last year, married couples accounted for only 52 percent of the adult population, with more couples cohabitating instead of tying the knot. According to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, the number of opposite-sex couples living together increased by 13 percent. Last year also saw an increase in prenuptial agreements and cohabitation agreements. With this new trend toward cohabitation, how are couples making their relationships last for the long term?