My husband and I have been married for sixteen months, but we have been together for four and 1/2 years. We have been budgeting together since we first moved in together - in June 2009. However, we have been talking about money and our attitudes towards money since the very beginning of our relationship. That is probably not surprising considering that I am a personal finance blogger.
I think it is important to be upfront about money as soon as you know a relationship is becoming serious. My husband and I love having our separate accounts and the freedom it gives us. However, we also love having joint accounts for shared savings.
Every couple does it differently. We get together at least once a month to review our budget and plan next month's budget. Each month we put in what we make, adding all our our expenses, including savings and retirement accounts. Since we don't make the same amount and months can bring different amounts of income or expenses we even everything in rent. I almost never pay the same amount in rent, and because my husband has commuting costs, which make his expenses higher, I normally pay more than him in rent. What we end up with is the same amount put into savings (joint and individual) and the same amount of money left for non-fixed expenses each month. It works well for us as we both feel it is fair and we both still have freedom with our money.
photo by qthomasbower
2 comments:
We did not talk about money early, because I wasn't interested in it early and he didn't bring it up early. We were young, so the conversation wouldn't have been long. :) money talk is surprisingly easy when you aren't making any!
Now, we talk about it sometimes, but... not very official still. i'm more interested in it, so as long as it is going according to my plan, we just check our networth once a month.
how you deal with money really is so personal, I think as long as you do talk about it that is all that matters.
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