maybe it's because it's almost time to start thinking about resolutions.
maybe it's because we're going to need another car in less than 2 months.
maybe it's because we're soon going to be legally responsible for each other's financial well being.
...but i'm super motivated to review all of our savings, retirement plans, credit cards, student loans, etc. i'm planning to discuss with the fiance tonight and i'm actually really looking forward to it.
during our annual christmas dinner last week, a friend shared that she and her husband use separate checking accounts along with a joint savings account. the husband is responsible for the major bills like rent and utilities. they are each responsible for their own car and insurance bills. and then they both contribute any excess to the joint savings account.
back when i was actually making money, we were headed down a similar path. we both contributed to a joint checking and paid all of our joint expenditures (meals, vacations, etc) through that account. we each paid for our own cars and insurance and also had our own separate retirement, investment, and savings accounts.
i thought that's how we would keep things. but not so.
because now that my income structure has changed (as in, been whittled down closer to zero), that process no longer works. we now deposit both of our incomes to a joint checking and disperse funds to a joint savings twice monthly. all of our bills (his, mine, ours) are now jointly paid out of the...joint checking.
i no longer have a 401k to contribute to...so we'll have to talk about setting up a separate IRA for me.
we have slightly different philosophies when it comes to the market (i'm fairly aggressive and like to experiment...he's conservative) so it might be in our best interest to keep building our investment accounts separately.
ok, now i'm just babbling. too much sugar.
at the end of the day, no matter what we decide to do with all of our accounts, i'm glad the fiance and i can talk very openly about money. we have different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to managing finances and i think (AND I HOPE AND I PRAY) that with continued transparency, we will always be able to resolve money issues logically and adeptly.
i keep hearing that MONEY (especially after buying a house, having kids, [insert additional financial burdens here]) creates all sorts of problems in relationships...so i'm banking on our open communication (pun anyone?) to keep us from falling into that trap.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
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