Minneapolis, MN · Issue of September 9, 2026
4 pieces, newest first.
The legal costs are the part people expect. The part that flattens households is the six months afterwards, when one income has to furnish two kitchens and both of them need a can opener.
Tom Beckett3 min
The phone bill, the car insurance, the rent that is only for a few months, the groceries that get bought twice. Nine households added it up, and the median came to $9,840 a year — most of it in lines nobody thinks of as support.
Marcus Whitfield3 min
Most families have this conversation in the autumn of senior year, which is the worst possible time: after the list is made, after the visits, after a teenager has attached a future to a place. Here is the version to have three years earlier.
Priya Raman3 min
Couples do not avoid talking about money because it is complicated. They avoid it because every previous attempt turned into an argument about character. Here is a forty-minute version that does not, taken from households where it worked.
Tom Beckett3 min