Life happens.

And with it, so do unforeseen hardships.

That's why it is always good to be proactive and have a plan.

A new report by BMO Wealth Institute reveals that while many Canadians have a financial plan in place, very few have considered what would happen if unexpected life events arose that could cause financial hardships.

Retiring debt-free used to be the goal for all Canadians. Pay off the mortgage, no more car payments,  and use credit cards judiciously, if at all. After all, living on a fixed income leaves little or no room in the budget for making interest payments.

Looks like that's strictly old school, however, according to a recent study. 

The study, conducted for the Investor Education Fund, found that 24% of the homeowners expect to have at least some debt on their home after they retire. What's worse, most of them admit that they don’t really know how they'll pay it off.

That's not completely surprising, however. More people are working well past the traditional retirement age. At the same time, the age of first-time home buyers has increased sharply, leaving them with fewer years in which to pay things off.

Many couples think marrying or setting up house together means merging their debt loads, but that's not necessarily the case. While many couples opt to pay down debt together, neither spouse is usually legally obligated to pay off debt that the other incurred before marriage.

If your spouse or partner never signed the original contract or requested a credit card, they can't be held responsible for the debt. In Canada, marriage alone does not make you responsible for your spouse's debts.

However, if you refinance a loan with your significant other and put your name on the loan's promissory note, or add yourself as a joint account holder of a credit card, you'll likely become responsible for those debts, even if your spouse took them on before you got together.

At the very least, this could mean setting some guidelines such as cutting up unnecessary credit cards and living on a debt-senstive budget.

Today is a special day for couples, so try not to spoil it -- like you did last year, for instance. You know, the 'don't you think that's an awful lot to pay for a bottle of wine' thing.

Money disagreements as the top reason couples argue, ahead of squabbling about children, chores, work or friends, according to a survey by the American Institute of CPAs.

In another poll, 20% of couples say their relationship problems are due to their current debt situations. And 27% admit that financial stress has left a negative impact on their relationships

One key problem is that couples don't speak the same language, says Candace Bahr, who heads up  WIFE.org, the San Diego-based nonprofit dedicated to protecting and enriching couple's financial lives.

Which is why you probably need the translation guide below. 

Do you and your partner speak the same language when it comes to money? Are the discussions getter better or worse?

By Gordon Powers, MSN Money

Divorce is always devastating. But for some couples, parting with their other half is easy compared to dividing income and assets fairly.

While some partners may have unrealistic expectations or simply aren't emotionally ready to settle up, others are dishonest and deliberately try to hide or deplete their assets.

Either way, the financial negotiations of divorce will be the largest financial transaction most individuals will ever participate in, says Justin A. Reckers, a financial planner who works with couples that have or are contemplating a split.

Most every divorcing person will prefer things, at least the financial side, to remain the same post-divorce as they were during their marriage. In reality, the pay cheque doesn't go as far when supporting two completely separate households, so everyone loses financially in divorce, he points out.

If you think your relationship might be on shaky ground, here are a few things he suggests you think about long before you knock on his door.

Statistics suggest that more second marriages fail than first marriages.

Despite this, many divorced or widowed men and women do remarry, complicating their financial affairs and creating a fluid network of step-relatives, all with their own sets of financial expectations.

As couples get older and their lives more complicated, more of those entering new relationships seem to be choosing to postpone or forgo such formal arrangements for fear of these financial consequences.

And second-time-around Canadians are much more inclined to talk about marriage contracts or prenuptial agreements than they once were.

Are you one of them? Do you know someone who is?  

The percentage of North Americans living by themselves has doubled since 1960, so much so that roughly 28% of all households now consist of just one person -- the highest level in history.

Is this a natural state? Absolutely, maintains sociology professor Eric Klinenberg, in his book Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone. In fact, people will live alone whenever and wherever they can afford to do it, he insists. 

The proof is what comes out of their pockets, since 'singletons' willingly pay a premium for the privilege of living alone.

Loosely put, the cost of living is the square root of the number of people living together. So if you live with someone else, whether they're a roommate or a significant other, you’ll pay about 70% of what you would pay if you were living alone.

But the money doesn't matter for most people, Klinenberg believes. It's simply the cost of freedom. Living alone comports promotes freedom, personal control and self-realization — all prized aspects of contemporary life.

The makeup of today's Canadian household has morphed into a web of relationships, changing the way families handle their money, particularly if such blended arrangements come equipped with kids.

Pulling together a family with your new spouse, your spouse's children, and your own can lead to certain issues on the financial front, warns Jean-Rémy Deschênes, a wealth manager with the Desjardin Group.

The issues with blended families are never simple but are easier to handle when everyone is still alive and the documents can be amended.

And while children of any blended family can struggle with stepparents, the feuds between children and their parents’ spouses can be more intense when money is at stake.

In Spousonomics: Using Economics to Master Love, Marriage, and Dirty Dishes, reporters Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson attempt to solve some of marriage's stickiest issues by applying the precision of the dismal science to the messiness of relationships.

Good luck with that, I thought.

However, while sometimes a bit of a stretch, it is a fun read, assuming you see every relationship having its own little economy, a business of two, if you will, with a finite number of scarce resources that need to be allocated efficiently.

In a chapter comparing economic bubbles to the giddiness of young love, for instance, the authors point out that things change dramatically when the price of something rises far above its actual worth.