Me and my fiancé are getting married in 5 months! We have been together for 3 years now and, thank god, are on the same page regarding our financial goals and ambitions.
Before getting engaged, we each have our own brokerage accounts, checking and savings accounts, and multiple credit cards each. We don’t have any debt.
Now we have been doing a few things to prepare ourselves for the married life. I want to outline our plan so far and then see if anyone here has any comments, suggestions, or advice.
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Savings. First thing we did was open a joint savings account together (Marcus high interest savings account). We have agreed to putting aside a particular amount each month. This is the first joint account we have together. This was our first step in combining finances and holds about 25% of our $$
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Credit cards. We haven’t done this yet, but we are planning to start a joint credit card for joint expenses and then consolidate any cards that have annual fees to just one. This is a big step because it will be the first time we see exactly what each other is spending.
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Checking accounts. We haven’t really decided what to do here. Is it better to have one checking account once we’re married or do we each keep our own? We both agreed that we’d like to have our own account where we can each have discretionary spending but not represent any major amount of our finances. Any suggestions here?
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Investments. This area has been the most confusing one for us to tackle. We both started to learn and begin investing in stocks a few years ago when we started dating. We each have several investment accounts. I have one for stocks, an IRA, and a personal investment account on Wealthfront. My fiancé has a good amount in stocks as well. 75% of our finances is invested between passive etf’s and some stock picking.
Once we are married, what is the best way to handle our brokerage accounts? Should we merge into one? We both have fun with stock picking, but she is a bit more excited about the stock market than me. I am more of a believer in passive investments and dollar cost averaging into my Wealthfront each week. What’s the best way to merge all our investments and make sure we continue our financial journey together but without the other person feeling like they’re not in control?
- Goals - overall, our goals are aligned. Through our savings and investments (and love), we hope to purchase a home in the next few years and grow our family. The end goal is the same with just a few questions of how to get there in the short term.
All of this is happening in love and joy of the journey of life and excitement to begin to become one!
Submitted March 25, 2019 at 01:17AM by jblisstaz https://ift.tt/2UX6MYE
