Let's talk about money

k8888

Specifically merging finances...  I know we've talked about this before but not recently that I can recall.

FI and I have only talked about how we're going to manage our finances, and we've yet to pull the trigger on anything. 

Our immediate future plan (like within the next 2 weeks) is to open a joint checking and savings that will be for bills/mortgage stuff and we'll keep our separate checking and credit card accounts for the time being.  I'm very independent when it comes to managing my personal finances so completely combining is still way too scary for me just yet.  I'm also not sure how we're going to fund these joint accounts, either. 

What have you done or what are you planning on doing to combine finances, if anything?  Any tips/advice you can offer?

colleenm18

So FI and I already have a joint savings account.  It also has a checking account on it but that was because we started to use it to pay wedding bills.

Although he has access to the account he never uses it and I do all of the transfers in and out.  The account is with my bank (a credit union) so it is just easier.  FI gives me money every pay check to put into the account and I just deposit.  Its not ideal but it works for us.

We live together but FI legal address is still his mom's house.  Once we legally live under the same roof My name is going onto FI bank account and we will make that our joint account and I will have full access to it.  This account will become our spending account/bill account and i will have  % of my paychecks direct deposited into this account and then a %  into my own personal savings account. 

I dont care how long I am married I will always carry my own bank account and cc.  ALWAYS keep at least one card in your name because you just never know! 

TChiumi

FI and I both have two checking and savings accounts.  We have put each other on  one of our accounts.  Our checks are direct deposited into and account and I pay all of our bills.  We will both keep our accounts that we have by ourselves and will probably both keep at least one credit card that is personal to each of us.  

My only advice would be if you combine all of your money that only one of you is in charge of paying all the bills.  I think that you both need to talk about your bills and where money is going but it becomes to confusing if one month you are making payment and the next one he is doing it.  It would become very easy to forget what was paid and what wasn't.  

brandichamberlain

FI and I both have our checks deposited into the same account.  We sat down and came up with a budget and we each get X amount each pay period for spending.  We can do whatever we want with that money.  All of our bills then comes from our account.  We have a separate savings account and now we have a wedding account.  I have my own checking account, I just put my X amount in there and he prefers cash.

Melissa.hylton

FI and I have had a joint account for the last 3 years since we have been living together for that long. I am honestly the controller of the money. In the beginning we did our own thing and were overdrafted so many times and finally we had to sit down and work out a program. So I hold all money and cards. We dont make any purchases without asking eachother. Since I know whats in the account what needs to be paid I am able to tell him yes or no or whatever. He likes to joke that I take all his money but in the end he says he is glad that I am able to keep his ass in check because he needed it. FI is a impluse buyer. It could be anything from lighters, clothes, food, just random stuff all the time. Had to put a stop to it and now he understands and sees it for the better for our future. 

arunkumar

FI and I are going to keep our separate bank accounts, debit/credit cards,etc.. that we have now. Whatever money we have in the separate accounts right now will remain separate. 

We are also going to open up a joint checking/savings account and a joint credit card after I change my name.  We've decided that 70% of his monthly income will go in our joint account (to pay bills, mortgage, gas, food, etc) and the remaining 30% will go into his separate account, and the same for me. This way, if either of us wants to make a big purchase for ourselves or buy a gift for the other person, or even lend someone money, we can do it through our separate account.

My mom always told me I should keep a separate account and I am taking her advice!

LADY324

I was very similar to you with not wanting to join all of our stuff so this is what happened with us.  When we bought the house we opened up just a joint checking we each put $100 bucks each pay check we pretty much used this for our groceries.  Then it was annoying when we would need to add more money before we got paid again.  FI used to pay all of the bills then I wrote him a check for my 1/2.  We were constantly forgetting to tell each other certain things we paid for.  So doing joint was not working out b/c I was usually paying for more stuff since I did all of the food shopping. 

We decided about 9 months ago it would just be easier to have 1 checking and 1 savings instead of always transferring money back and forth.  So FI closed out his accounts deposited all of his money into savings into my account.  Then we just added his name to my 2 open accounts and got him an ATM credit card.  It has just been so much easier for us for saving for the wedding and paying the mortgage/utility bills.  It has worked out great.  We both still buy things that we want too.  It's not like I ask him when I want to go to the store and buy a new shirt or a new pair of shoes or get my nails done.  I just do it.  So for us it has worked out great so far

MeaganR12

We're going to open a joint checking account and savings account at his bank (just because he has chase, I have bank of america, and chase has more locations here) after we get married. I'll still keep my checking account because it's connected to my cc and it's easier to pay that way. I'm going to have my direct deposit transfered to our joint account.

I will be responsible for paying the bills and I am SO looking forward to that because my FI is awful at paying his on time right now.

I use mint.com right now for my budget but my FI doesn't because it wasn't his idea (lol I'm seriously 90% sure that's the reason) and I'm going to set that up for our new joint account. We haven't talked about regular contributions to the savings account yet.

k8888

I was really hoping you would all say budgeting is for the birds because IMO pulling my hair out is more fun than budgeting.

dramaqueen91087

I think that for now we are going to keep our seperate accounts. We have had shared bills but seperate accounts for almost two years now and it works for us. He pays some bills, I pay the others. We check with each other on major purchases but we have our own money for little ones. And he can't tell when buy cupcakes! I'm sure we'll combine eventually but for now this works for us and theres no need to change it.

michelle11988

K888 - I will do your budgeting for you!! I love doing my monthly budget haha.  But then again I'm an accountant and I love numbers.

Right now we have like 6 accounts between the two of us and 4 major credit cards and a handful of store credit cards.  It makes me go insane thinking about all the money shifting around! So after the wedding we are downgrading to 4 accts (1 joint checking, 1 joint savings, and each an individual savings that we will put $100/mth in for our own savings/gifts all that stuff).  We are going to keep all of our credit cards separate and as they are now because I don't want to risk both of our credit scores should something happen financially to us.  We just put all of our money in the checking except 20% of FI's pay which is automatically put into savings. 

After the month ends and we do our budget, we move over the extra money so we don't spend it into our savings.  Once we build up a 4-6 month reserve in our savings we will start tackling our student loans a bit more and some house projects.  I want to build up a bigger reserve than most because at the end of the year I will be a partner at my job and if I get pregnant I probably won't be able to draw a full salary while I'm home with a baby for more than 1-2 months.

KimC1983

We will be staying separate and will be opening a joint savings for wedding checks and emergency fund.  We've hashed out what bills belong to whom and we're gonna head that way.  Keep credit cards separate, too.  It has worked for us for 5 years, so we'll just keep it the way it is.  

BmoreBride311

We have separate credit cards, but joing checking and savings. We did the merge last summer when I moved to the UK, b/c I wouldn't have been able to get a UK credit card otherwise (they are so much stricter about issuing cc's here, and we like to charge everything so we can earn rewards).

I was kind of hesitant to merge accounts at first, but it made a lot of sense and really isn't so bad. I like that we still have separate CCs, though, so my FI can't see line by line what I buy (he would prolly not like seeing what I spent at Sephora last month, haha), but he can see the total amount I'm spending, and vice versa, which is what ultimately matters.

mekiakoo

We did this back in December.

We still have separate checking accounts, but we are able to access each other's and we have shared savings account.

So far we are using the savings account for our honeymoon and mortgage.

I'm scared about 100% combining our $$. Not going to do that just yet.