Sample Marriage Contract

In The Pragmatist’s Guide to Relationships we discuss how all relationships (platonic, professional, educational, romantic, sexual, etc.) bring with them implied social contracts.

If you do not take time to verbally—or in written form—outline your social contracts, they will be governed by social norms and societal defaults, and sometimes the social norms you believe to be governing your relationship with another person don’t match perfectly with the norms they assume are governing your relationship (e.g. you think it’s OK to show up 20 minutes late; they see it as a serious insult).

While most people can skirt by with implied social contracts governing most of their relationships (knowing that mismatched expectations will ultimately lead to some problems), marriage is a different beast.

In other words, you’re bonkers for not intentionally and jointly establishing the terms of a social contract with someone you marry (with whom you intend to spend a huge chunk of your life living in close quarters and co-mingling assets).

We encourage you to read the book’s full chapter on relationships to determine how to create your own relationship contracts from scratch, but if you would like a template from which to start, we’ve conveniently put one together for you to explore. Please fill out the form to the right to access our relationship contract template and receive a link via email. We regularly update this template in response to reader feedback and welcome you to email us with your own ideas, questions, and suggestions.