Any advice for a couple moving in together

slicence

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone had any friendly advice for me. My boyfriend and I are in our late 20s, and are looking to move in together. So, we're busy looking for our first place together.

I've lived with a partner before, but it wasn't like this. I was the bread-earner then, he was still a student, things were a lot more independant.

My current boyfriend earns more or less double what I earn, and I'm working full time. Does anyone have a suggestion on how we can split the bills? We're both happy to get a joint account for household bills and rent, and we're both going to arrange to pay a fixed amount each month into this account.

Does anyone have any advice on the best joint accounts, or any advice at all really! Although I've done this before, it all feels scarily new to me

Thanks guys! x

kettlenic

I would suggest opening a seperate account and setting all bills to direct debit from there - each month you bot pay into this account. dont forget quarterly bills etc and to accrue that money etc

its is up to you if you want to go 50/50 depends if you can both afford it or if one really out earns the other you may consider doing a %

janninew

I was in a similar position as you a few years back before I got married, both working full time, he earnt nearly triple what I did!

What we did (and it won't suit everybody!) was open a joint account and put all our money in it together, we transferred our direct debits and standing order to the joint account and once all the bills were paid for, that is what we had left. This worked well for us, we wanted to share everything equally, plus we are both good with money and if we made any big purchases we talked to each first. This might not work for everybody, especially if one person likes to spend all the time or isn't that good with money. It suited us fine though and still does now.

Good luck with the move.

Cash-Cow_3

We just opened one joint account and one joint savings. All salary goes in and all bills come out of same account. Simples. I know its not for everyone in fact even now married this seems unusual with my friends.

Counting_Pennies_2

We had a joint bank account for food and bills.

We decided that I would pay into it the % of income I had according to his.

I think it ended up being about 30%.

When we bought a property together, we signed a living together agreement, drawn up via the solicitors to ensure the split of the property would be 30/70 should we ever split up

divadee

Cash-Cow wrote: »

We just opened one joint account and one joint savings. All salary goes in and all bills come out of same account. Simples. I know its not for everyone in fact even now married this seems unusual with my friends.

I find it odd that more people don't have joint everything! My hubby and I before we were married lived together and all our money still went into the one account an everything was paid out of that. What was left over was our spending/saving money etc... If we had to have a big purchase we would discuss it but we didn't keep tabs on who was spending what etc...

Maybe this worked for us as we have the same spending habits ie. not only one partner spending all the money.

Birdie85

My DH and I pool our money together in a joint account and then each take out the same amount of 'flash cash' so all bills, food, petrol, holidays etc are covered by the joint account and fun/frivolous stuff just for us is paid for with our own money. It was easier to say, 'Let's each have £x every month to spend' rather than working out how much we should put in as a percentage, especially as it would have to be reassessed every time one of us got a payrise.

This stopped arguments and resentment about who was spending what when he earned more than I did, and now I earn more than he does it still works as one of us is never on top of the other financially and never will be. If one of us lost our job, we'd both cut down on how much we take out of the joint account each month, if one got a massive payrise, we'd take a little more fun money out for treats. No point in one person living the high life whilst the other struggles to keep up.

PurplePow

I'm exactly the same as you poster!

I'm in my late 20's and my fiance earns almost double what I do.

We both transfer exactly the same amount into a joint account, and this covers the mortgage and all bills. Then we each have leftovers to spend on what we will.

As he earns more than me though, and as we're now engaged and getting married later this year, so our relationship is very long term and trusting. OH pays for meals out, holidays etc. It works well for us

Edit: I should also point out when we first moved in together he wasn't on such a high wage, not much higher than mine, which is why we both put the same amount in together.

Stephb1986_2

Just a question for the people who put all the money together.

What about birthday and christmas presents? Or what about if it's christmas and your partner has more family than you eg nieces, nephews etc?

Steph xx

PurplePow

Club together our own money and go halfs.

Edit: Oh and we don't buy for extended family (Aunts/Uncles etc) just parents.

VestanPance

You'll get a hundred different answers to your question and none in truth are right or wrong.

The only thing that will work for you is to sit down with your partner and talk through how you both would like to see things arranged financially. As long as the two of you can agree on a system that you are both happy with then you are good. Take note of suggestions offered here if you will, but what ever you do it needs to be something you both agree with.