Financial Infidelity: Red Flags to Look Out for in a Marriage with Tracy Coenen

Welcome back to Don’t Retire… Graduate! While nobody goes into a marriage thinking about divorce, it’s one of only two ways every marriage ends (the other being death, of course). Today’s guest Tracy Coenen has seen her fair share of divorce and is here to talk about a common cause for marriages to end: financial infidelity.  As a forensic accountant, Tracy is here to share red flags you can look for if you suspect your spouse or partner of hiding money, how you can do your own forensic accounting, and her experience navigating this marriage minefield.  Don’t run out and make a secret email address right away, but definitely listen to this episode! In this episode we’ll talk about: • Which gender is more likely to hide money in a marriage  • The differences seen by financial advisors and forensic accountants   • The importance of discussing finances in a marriage/partnership and why it should be a regular conversation  • What financial infidelity means • Red flags to look out for if you suspect your spouse of financial infidelity • What a forensic accountant does and how to find your spouse’s hidden money • The best ways for a couple to title or share their money and bank accounts • What to do if you suspect your husband or wife is hiding money and how to assess if there is fraud or dishonesty  • How to prepare for a potential divorce  About Tracy Coenen: Tracy has been investigating fraud for more than 25 years, but she didn’t always want to be a forensic accountant. With a dream of one day being a prison warden, Tracy went to Marquette University in Milwaukee, WI to get a criminology degree. A class on financial crime investigations reminded her how much she loved Encyclopedia Brown books as a kid. She continued her criminology degree, but added accounting and economics courses so she could sit for the CPA exam… and here Tracy is, finding money in cases of corporate fraud, high net worth divorce, and other financial shenanigans.  Resources: Visit dontretiregraduate.com for a full transcript of this episode. https://www.divorcemoneyguide.com  https://www.instagram.com/divorcemoneyguide  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Don’t Retire… Graduate! Is the podcast that asks what you want to be when you grow up so you can graduate into retirement with a passion and a purpose. Hosted by Certified Financial Planner Practitioner, Eric Brotman, this show will explore different methods for saving money, paying down debt, raising financially literate children, growing your wealth, and reaching financial independence–whether you’re 35 or 65. Retirement is not the absence of work, but the absence of needing to work. So join us while we talk to award-winning, best-selling authors, finance experts, influencers, and people with amazing money stories to help you set and reach financial goals, discover your passions, and make a plan for what you want to be when you reach the point where work becomes optional. Plus, between full episodes we’ll answer listener questions about personal finance, investing, retirement readiness, taxes, and more. Topics covered include: budgets, credit, debt, emergency funds, balancing expenses, health savings accounts, insurance and risk management, financial advisors, mortgages, retirement savings, social security, money management, spending, fintech and finance apps, employee benefits, and the FIRE movement.