Two Day Magazine

The art of fun-ances!

So, just like that, you wake up to realize you fell in love.  You’ve taken all the next steps:  started the serious relationship, met the family, met the friends, even bought a puppy together.  Now, you begin to wonder, would be easier on both of you if you would just combine it all – including your bank accounts?  Sure, it could be incredibly convenient and it would be a great way to show him/her how much you trust them.  Are there bad sides to this, though?  Is it really a sign of trust? Consider this as an alternate solution or a great trial run. 

• Create a joint account at the bank that makes you happy, but also keep the two accounts that you have had from long ago when one of you was a babysitter and the other a lawn-mower. 
• Feed the new account appropriately and make sure you both have proper access to it.  Get some fancy little checks and send away for dual ATM cards.  Make sure that with each paycheck the two of you earn, your growing “baby” gets some attention.  It’s important to know that the more you put into this account, the more accurate the experiment will be of whether this was a good idea or not. 
• You want to have the ability to spend the earnings, especially when another income is added to the original one.  Use it when you shop together for groceries, things for the house or even gasoline. 
• You will have to keep track of the receipts, the charges and the activity.  Depending on how much you let go of the greenbacks, this might be a nightly chore of balancing the account.  Then, comfort sets in and you both see how easy it really can be and you begin to use it on your own.  Hey, you give your loved one your daily activity at night, right?  I see no problem with part of my day being a shopping trip for shoes, lunch with friends and driving over an hour to get there, one way.  What fun!  It’s like working normally and making twice as much!

Slow down! With trust comes responsibility! So, follow the rules.  If he/she spent the same amount on similar items without me, would there be a necessary talk?  Is what I’m purchasing something that can be as equally shared, such like the money that we both contributed to the account?  Or, am I just thinking of my own wants?  If the answers to these questions sound a little like “yes,” “not really,” and “no, but I’m lying, so, yes,” in that order, then maybe you weren’t ready to combine it all.  You may have let your excitement run away with you and now those new shoes…they’re gorgeous (but, oh, so wrong)!

Remember, this is a trial run, so you may make mistakes.  You both will get a sense of what the future holds for the two of you.  It is also a tell-tale sign of how you both treat someone who trusts you.  

Let me leave you with this.  There once were two people who shared an account.  One was inherently more responsible than the other, but they really balanced each other out.  The wacky one felt he was getting old and his normally fetching good looks were mere shadowed evidence of age inhibiting his youth.  His partner said that he was being foolish and that he was as stunning as ever.  All felt right with the world until the new month began and there was an alarmingly short amount of money available towards rent.  Also, this was about the same time that the wacky one had few to no facial expressions, except mild surprise.  Yes, rent went to Botox injections and the landlord was not amused.  All in all, experiment first, people; and the only second name on my money now is Sir Gullible McFoolerson (my alias) until that damn Botox wears off.