By: Lisa Ng
I recently chatted with my friends at Brighter Life on what it was like when Paul and I joined our finances, which got me thinking about this post. We kept our finances separate for the first five years we were dating. It was only after about a year of us both living together did we decide to finally join our finances.
This was a big deal.
We were not married yet, but pretty much common-law at this point and had been together for six years by that time. I knew that this was the guy I was going to marry and once we both passed the ‘living together’ test, the next big step was joining our finances.
Taking the big leap
Before we joined our finances together, we each had our own separate checking accounts, credit cards, savings accounts and shared just one joint account. This account was kept empty most of the time, except when the rent and bills were due – we both put in our half for that month and everything came out of that account. It was more for convenience then anything else.
So what happened once we linked up?
We tackled debt as a team! We consolidated all of our outstanding student debt into a joint low-interest credit line. We cancelled any unnecessary credit cards and department store cards that had a $0 balance. Paul and I looked at our remaining credit cards and paid off the lowest balance first before moving on to the next one, cancelling any extra cards we didn’t need in the process. In the end, we kept two credit cards – both of them joint.
Why did this work for us? By tackling our debt together, we were able to pay off the small balances faster. Reaching each goal was incredibly motivating that we were able to pay off a large part of our student debt and bought our starter home in Toronto together when we were 26.
Since my income was more varied throughout the year – I ran my own business and Paul’s was more steady, this made a lot of sense for us. We looked at who was getting paid next and which bills had to be paid first, it was no longer about a 50/50 split – but prioritizing and making sure bills got paid on time. When summer hit, my income would come in all at once and I aggressively paid down our credit line and even our car in one fell swoop – I was determined to be debt-free. This meant we could plan for our future. I even wrote a post on how we did it: 9 Ways to Save Money + Still Live Well.
Once we finally became debt-free we turned our attention to our joint savings accounts, maximizing our RRSPs, TFSAs and other investments. We each still maintain our own chequing account, but I do credit working together as a team and being honest about our finances as the thing that got our 20-something selves out of debt once in for all!
Have you joined your finances with your partner? If so, what was your strategy?
The post Joining Finances With Your Partner appeared first on This Beautiful Day.
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