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Hi!
Okay, this is the girl who asked about the way money should be split in a relationship. It's none of my business as to what goes on with you and your fiance, but lets say my partner and I decide to join everything together and pay that way, what will happen with the rest of the money? As immature as this sounds, my partner loves games and technology, so he prefers to spend money on that, whereas I enjoy going out to eat, buying necessities, etc. I am an only child and he's the oldest, so we both love our money. I just feel weird splitting everything in half, because it makes me feel like I might as well move back in with my parents. Anyway, thanks in advanced!
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Maybe give some free advice about: Personal Finance?
The answer to all of this? Budget, budget, budget.
Sure, you might not be spending all of your cash intake. That's how it should be.
You need to break down your expenses into categories. You've got your regular bills planned out, but what about clothing, medical expenses, and all that stuff that isn't a regular expense, but pops up from time to time? You need to plan where your money is going no matter how you handle expenses.
We figured out what we needed to pay our bills every month, plus putting some aside in an emergency fund (for if you lose a job, or something else catastrophic happens) and some into savings. In addition, we worked out what we could spend on necessities in a year, then divided it by 12 and added that to the total. We then had a lump amount that would cover all of our expenses every month. We keep a few bank accounts; a savings account and mutual funds for savings, and two chequing accounts. One account gets the amount we need monthly deposited into it on the first of every month. The other account accumulates any extra, which we can use however we like: for instance, this spring we had extra, so we did some renovations. You can even have more accounts if you want to save for something special, like buying a car or putting a down payment on a house.
You should never spend exactly what you make (and NEVER more than what you make!). It's never too early to start thinking about retirement, because compound interest is best taken advantage of by saving at a young age. Plus, that way you have a cushion in case you lose a job, or go on maternity leave, or break a leg.
As for personal purchases, what we do is we each have a weekly allowance. We can spend it on whatever we want, guilt-free; a beer with friends for him, a new video game for me, etc. It's worked out fine, because each of us has an equal amount to spend on ourselves.
Personally, I wouldn't split everything exactly in half. To me, marriage is a team effort, and each partner contributes equally in the end, although it might not be financial in nature (for instance, I work less than my fiance, but I do more housework). Counting pennies and going "YOU have to pay this" and "I have to pay this" is such a sad way to go about things. I'd much rather be working together with my guy to achieve common goals.
I hope that answered your question :)
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