Pre-existing individual debt - student loans, credit card balances, a prior vehicle loan - is a genuinely important conversation to have early in a serious relationship and certainly before combining finances. Legally, pre-existing individual debt generally remains the individual's responsibility in Canada; it does not automatically become shared upon marriage or cohabitation. However, from a practical budgeting perspective, one partner's debt payments affect the couple's shared cash flow and shared financial capacity. A transparent conversation about the debt's amount, the repayment strategy, and how it fits into the couple's shared budget is essential. Many couples choose to treat pre-existing debt as a shared priority even though it is legally individual, because eliminating it faster serves both partners' financial futures.