What if I used my salary for bills and his for savings?

Question

My fiance and I have been living together for two years and pay for everything half and half.

But things like groceries and rent and bills are kind of confusing because it takes a while to see who has what and if one person can afford something and the other can't, it ends up being uneven.

So, i was thinking that I could use my paycheck to pay for bills and buy things, etc. and his paychecks can go into a joint savings account that neither one of us will touch..I know there's always a "what if he leaves" or "what if you leave", but we've been together for three years, lived together for two and are commited to each other.

Are there any other problems that i'm not seeing? I think it's a good idea, but what do you guys think?

Answer 1

So why dont you just get married?  Youre committed to each other right?  I dont mean to be all preachy on it, but it just makes sense.  You will get better tax refunds, nothing will really change between you, etc... I just dont see why not, go to vegas, get married and then there arent any questions.  Simplification.  :-)

The issue I see is if you arent ready to get married and commit to sharing everything, then sharing money could be a bit of an issue with him.  It would also lend itself to "its MY money in the savings account so when I leave, MY money comes."  Etc...

I really just dont see how it would work unless you were both ready for it, and if you are ready for that, what's getting married?

Answer 2

Go ahead and merge the finances now.  In a marriage, there should be no such thing as "his" money or "her" money - only "our" money.  It simplifies things a lot, and eliminates a lot of potential conflict in the finances.

Answer 3

Since you two are living as a married couple anyway... i suggest you two open a joint bank account. Have all your paychecks direct deposited into there. Then you two are pooling your money together and you pay your bills out of that account. There's no such thing as "uneven" in a marriage and since you two have been shacking up, you might as well consider yourselves married. So, do the right thing and just consider his money yours and your money his. It doesn't matter if you make 3x what he does... you two are a team.

You have to face the very real possibility though that one of you may become unhappy in the relationship and will split up. At that point, you should each get HALF of what is in the account and assets accumulated together. Basically, if you live as a married couple, you should suffer the same consequences if you break up.

Just my $0.02.

Answer 4

If you want a joint account and are SO committed, then why don't you just get married?

Haven't you heard of Judge Judy? She deal with this all the time.