Going to move in with my gf soon. How do non-married couples manage finances? Was thinking of opening a joint bank account where we each deposit our share of rent and other shared expenses.

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Have one person pay bills and other Venmo. There’s definitely some risk with joint credit card.

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Have your own accounts until you’re married. Use Venmo

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This is the answer.

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Easiest is to get a joint credit card and pay for as much as you can on that. For rent we had one person pay and the other Venmo.

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We do a proportional income split, so I make 67% of our combined income, she makes the other 33%, so we split shared expenses at that ratio. Then we both have our disposable incomes to do with as we please based on our salaries. We also opened a joint bank account so our direct deposit can very easily drop the required amount into it each paycheck. I would hold off on a credit card together until you really understand how you both work financially. If it turns out the other person does not know how to handle using a credit card well yet, you don’t want that impacting your credit score right off the bat. On top of that, have money conversations that are open and honest so that it doesn’t become a stressor or something to hide in the relationship.

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A shared credit card is great because you get to accumulate points which you can then use for travel together.

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My bf and I moved in together earlier this year and will be getting engaged soon. I pay the rent and he sends me his portion via Venmo. I added him as a user on one of my existing credit cards months ago with the intention of having that become our joint card, but we’ve been very bad about using it and generally just do what we did when we weren’t living together: we split large grocery purchases same-day on Venmo and then take turns paying for meals/coffees/misc expenses out. I make a lot more so usually pay 2/3 of the time and he pays the other times or when he specifically wants to go somewhere or treat me. We really go by feel and don’t count the dollars and cents, but that’s also because we’ve been confident about our relationship trajectory for about a year now and will be getting engaged/married soon and we both have a “one family, one pot” mentality.

This week we actually sat down to try to figure out joint finances (e.g., joint checking, savings, etc.) and it felt like we were over engineering it so decided to stick with what we’ve been doing for the most part. The only difference is that we’re going to make it a goal to use our joint card regularly and then pay rent and the CC out of a new joint checking account. We’ll still maintain our own separate investments/savings since my bf is still getting comfortable managing his finances and wants to do that for himself, but all accounts will be considered family accounts once married even though we’re technically managing them separately. Since we’re on the cusp of marriage, we don’t feel weird about combining finances in this way.

The most important thing (and what I affirmed during this last week’s conversation) is that you and your partner need to have an open and honest conversation about what you both want and feel comfortable doing, and then go from there.

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What if you have the conversation and can't agree?

Now we are married for 9 years, but have always managed our monthly expenses in tracking app ( Splitwise) and settled expenses as the month ends. Always 50/50 except personal expenses.

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Same. We bought a house and down payment was split equally, mortgage every month comes under expenses, split equally. Vacation, at the end of vacation total expenses, split equally.

My 2cs - Don’t set up a joint account until you are engaged. More often than not, people who move in together don’t go on to be life partners. Once you are committed to a life long relationship (not saying she won’t be, but you say GF not partner, wife or fiancé), you can do one of the above.

Call me cynic, but opening up joint accounts and splitting up is just another thing to deal with. Especially now days where money transfers and apps do all of it with ease.

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We track expenses in the Splitwise app and once a month settle up in Venmo. We split 50/50 since our salaries are almost the same.

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My fiancé and I did just that credit a joint checking account and put in our share and I hit the button to make sure it’s paid.

Other not as big things we alternate who pays and sync up once a month

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Hmm I’ll check out Splitwise. We agreed we would both pay half of rent and utilities and contribute $600 each (per month) towards a food/restaurants fund.

Since we both have set budgets, I worry that using a CC will make it difficult to see how we are doing against our budgets until the end of the month.

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Do you no use a CC now? If so - you’re missing out on a 1-3% discount on life

Before we got married we split everything to the point where we each had atleast discretionary money for ourselves. For example if we both made about 70k we would juts split everything. However if I made 140K and she 70K I would pick up let's say 75% of the bills. You don't want your partner to feel like they have to ask you for money especially if you make much more.

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We’re splitting equally even though she makes more ($200K vs $180K). Our incomes are fairly close and she has student loans, which I don’t, so splitting equally seems fair.

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My wife and I have been together 11 years. Have tried all the things (keeping track, joint accounts, etc). Easiest thing we’ve found that makes it super clear is first have a convo about expectations and then use Splitwise to track everything else and just settle up every couple months. That way no one feels like they’re doing more of the grocery shopping etc and you end up having far less stuff to manage like additional credit cards.

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We use Splitwise to split expenses

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We use Splitwise, it’s an app. Every month we put in our expenses that we’re sharing and then it settles up through Venmo (connects straight to Venmo). We’re thinking about getting a joint credit card soon, though, just to eliminate having to go through each expense and remembering whether it was a shared one or not.

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The best way forward is for you and your gf to get separate apartments, pay for your stuff/utilities/grocery separately and split when you do meet for food, drinks or other activities. Which is where you are now. So stay that way till you choose to get married 😂

Never lived with a girlfriend so can’t tell you. Only moved in when we’re engaged but she owns the house at that time so I paid all the utility (as my rent 😁😁)

I’m 23, been with gf for 7 years and moved in together after college 1 year ago as of last month. We have similar savings goals and we see a shared future together and have sat down and created a budget in Google Sheets. We split just about everything down the middle and usually we will just use my card on the things we split (groceries, utilities, entertainment expenses, etc.) and she Venmo’s me every payday to cover that month’s expenses. Every time we spend money we put it in or Google sheets app

Been with my girl for 6 years, not married. We just pick up the bills based on how much we are making, if I'm making more I'll pick up the bigger ones and she handles the small ones no big deal

My boyfriend and I have separate accounts. We split expenses but I’m the one that pays them so he transfers me money every month.

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