Hammering out a prenuptial agreement with your betrothed certainly isn’t the most romantic of moments, but it may just be the decision that saves your financial sanity a few years from now when your life has become hell and it comes time to undo the sanctity of marriage.

Well Heeled Blog poses several questions couples should ask themselves to decide whether or not they need prenuptial agreements. Here are five of the most important:

* Are you cool with the way state law will decide to split up your assets? Most states use a method called “equitable distribution,” but nine states split everything you get while married down the middle.

* Do you have anything worth protecting? If you’re the heiress to an estate worth millions, that’s one thing. But if the greatest asset between the two of you is your complete set of 1990 Donruss baseball cards, you can probably skip the prenup.

* Are you both drowning in the same amount of debt? If you’ve got $10,000 in the bank but your partner owes that amount in student loans, you may want to construct a pre-emptive exit strategy.

* Do you want to punish infidelity? If you want the person who ruins the marriage to suffer financially by getting the lesser amount of assets, you can work that into the agreement.

* Do you have kids from a previous marriage? If you’ve got kids, you may need a prenup to avoid a vicious custody battle.

Do We Need a Prenup? 7 Questions You Should Ask Yourself [Well Heeled Blog]

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