Our money merge plans

Merging money has come up several times today. Mike & I outlined our plans last weekend so I thought I'd share.

 

I think it's important to have a plan, but it the plan would vary by couple. This is what we think will work for us. It can always be redone as things change. I just don't like money tension so I think a good plan will help.

 

I drew up a chart (yeah, big dork) & we talked about it. We are still going over details more to make sure we are both happy with the arrangement.

 

One thing we decided on was to be equal even if one of us is making more money. Right now he makes more, but we still get equal amounts of fun money. That way in the future if one of us sacrifices high pay for the other's career or raising the kids we are still even.

 

Here is the plan:

1. We are opening a joint checking & credit card. The credit card will be paid from our joint checking.

 

Things that come out of joint checking

rent

bills

our retirement savings

taxes

insurance

tuition (if he goes for another degree- my tuition is waved)

gas

groceries

eating out together

trips & entertainment together

presents for family

car payments if we have them

 

2. A set amount of money will draft out of the joint account to our personal account each month. This is fun money that we can do whatever we want with no questions asked. This ammount will change based on our incomes, savings goals, number of kids, etc. But, the ammounts will be equal.

 

What comes out of fun money

clothes

personal trips

eating out or movies seperately

toys

presents for each other

presents for individual friends

 

3. As money accumulates in the joint checking I'll move it to a type of savings. Either a high interest account (once those exist again), a mutual fund, CD or another type of investment.

 

This is a big benefit to this system. I enjoy managing my money & trying to get a good return. Mike doesn't. So my money has been making more money than his. Once I start managing our money together we'll get more interest. Also, it allows me to diversify investments as a couple.

 

I will keep him informed of what I'm doing & if he takes an interest in investing he can take over part or work with me. I don't want him in the dark about our finances, but I am happy to be the manager because it's something I'm interested in.

 

4. What goes in to joint account

pay checks

tax returns

gifts of money to both of us

 

5. what goes in seperate account

Money earned from side jobs (he builds computers & I do design stuff). We'd both put that money back in to our hobbies.

 

So that is the plan. We opened our joint checking to start putting wedding checks in. It's excited to be working as a couple on our finances. I'll let y'all know how it goes. I think it will be less paperwork now. I get tired of keeping track of everything so we can split it up.

That is exactly how Fi and I run manage our money. It works great. We also have our own credit cards that get paid out of our individual accounts. That way there are no questions about money and what goes where. Good plan!

so you merged before the wedding? we've been doing a roommates type split everything deal. But, over time we've stop keeping track so it's all merging anyway.

I really like the idea of fun money because we have opposite interest in what to spend our money on. I don't want to answer to him & I don't want to feel like I'm judging his choices.

That's a great plan! I'm going to see if it will work for us!

Sounds like a great plan. Thank you for sharing...we havent even really thought about it yet but I guess we should and this sounds like a plan that would work!

Good plan Morgan.. I've been thinking about this alot lately on how to do our joint and separate finances and your guideline is a good one

yeah, we tried the your money my money thing. But FI makes more in a day than I do in a week so that really didn't work so well lol. Our arrangement now leaves us from feeling bad about a splurg or having to "ask permission" on something we don't NEED.

Morgan thanks so much for sharing this plan!! I would like to use something like this for FI and I, and see how it works bc right now we are not doing anything and its not exactly working.

I think it's a great idea to do what you're doing!

For the time being, we're sticking with our mine & mine. Although everyone knows that what's his & mine & what's mine is mine :)

He makes WAY more money than I do, so we just try to split things up according to how much we make. Example: he pays the rent & I buy groceries. If we go out for dinner to a nicer restaraunt, he pays, but if it's take out or whatever, then I pay. We buy our own clothing & stuff like that & he occasionally gives me a bit of extra spending money here & there. It works well for us for the time being.

Before my BFF married her hubby, but they were already living together, they did the same thing...she made (makes) significantly more than he did and she wanted him to be able to freely spend the same amount she did.

 

No that they are married, they just have a joint account. She makes 6 figures and he makes about 30K, so she just spends whatever she wants. ha!

 

 

Jay and I have had joint checking accounts since we were just dating. He never spends money mostly because he works out of town so much and gets per diem. When he is home, he usually just spends money on lunch (when I am at work) and beer. I am the one that does the clothes shopping for both of us and we never go out w/o the other so it just works for us.