But a pre-nup is so expensive!

Yes, a good contracting out agreement will cost you (probably over $1,000 each and maybe more) but this is not somewhere to skimp and save. Coming back to my insurance analogy from an earlier post – you probably pay in excess of $700 on house insurance each year. Not because you intend or know that your house will burn down this year, but just in case it does. And the chance of that happening in any one year is minuscule! Over 20 years of home ownership you may spend $14,000 on insurance and never make a claim.

Contrast that to the 100% likelihood that your relationship will eventually end (either by separation or death) and a one-off cost of, say, $3,000 suddenly doesn't seem so exorbitant.

And be warned about looking for the cheapest pre-nup around: a poorly drafted agreement will cost you an awful lot more in the long-run. Unless the agreement is well drafted in accordance with the law, based on full disclosure and written specifically for your individual circumstances, it will be left wide open to challenge in the future. Not only will the agreement not be worth the paper it is written on, but you could be out of pocket by many thousands of dollars in legal fees before you realise it.