How to Money · Friday, August 28, 2026
Prenuptial agreements are becoming more common as couples increasingly opt to create their own terms rather than relying on state-defined defaults. A growing trend is to include clauses that offer more financial protection for a spouse who leaves the workforce to care for children, acknowledging potential lost earnings and career disruption.
“So I've changed my mind because every state has a different essentially prenup pre-written for you. And so why not create your own instead? And so basically the judge will decide for you if you don't decide for yourselves in advance. And one of the things that this article I read, which was in the Wall Street Journal, was they were saying that judges are not typically generous to the stay-at-home spouse.”
“So more couples are adding in clauses, Matt, that trigger the prenup if one partner leaves the workforce that trigger essentially more generosity.”
“The penalty, right, that you get that we've talked about for a long time that takes into account like lost earnings because you stayed at home. The fact that you've kind of fallen off a career track and it's harder to get back on it. So the prenup can take full advantage of and can take that into consideration. But- A judge often does not.”