You know those Words of Wisdom jars your friends and family contribute to the months leading up to your wedding? Chase and I loved reading through ours, but I always wondered what my advice would be down the road when I had wisdom to share. Well, a whole year and a half later I’ve written my own…

We’ve experienced this most recently when we took the plunge to combine our money into one account. We’ve talked about this for awhile now, and we were slowly moving toward implementing it to our checking accounts, but I just wasn’t ready to call my money ours. I knew once your married, what’s mine is ours. But it took some baby steps to really get my mind there.  With the help of our financial advisor, finally came up with a system that we think will work.

We are now dividing our two personal checking accounts into three separate accounts: Mine, Yours, Ours. I was hesitant at first, you see I’m a “less is more” kinda person and going from two accounts to three just sounded over-complicated {especially when I already manage my business accounts on top of it!} But after working through an expense worksheet {which I highly advise you do as well}, we realized there really is a clear distinction between what is a family need and what is a personal want. So here’s how it will work:

• My “fun account” will give me a chance to spoil myself every now and then without going overboard. Typical expenses that would come out of this account are mani/pedis, shopping outings, a night out with the girls, etc.
• Chase’s “fun account” will allow him to do all the things he loves to do, but I don’t love paying for: hunting, golfing, etc. If we are able to keep from spending all the money in our individual account accounts, we may just be able to save up for that more expensive toy down the road without dipping into our joint account or savings.
• That brings be to “our account”. This account is where the majority of our income will live. It will fund all the necessities life throws at us: mortgage, utilities, groceries, doctor’s trips, etc. Also out of this account will come all our savings: emergency funds, ROTH IRAs, etc.

It can definitely be tricky deciding what comes out of which account. My most recent debate at the checkout counter: “Do I need the $25 shampoo or do I just want the $25 shampoo. I know I need shampoo, but I really want the Redken.” My conclusion here was, by using a $5 coupon and waiting for a BOGO half off, I was able to stock up on my basic hair products at a reasonable price that I knew Chase wouldn’t mind paying for.  Now, if I had wanted to try the latest and greatest super-silky-root-lifting-bodyfing-hair-foam, I would pay for that one myself.

The trick is to allocate the same amount of money to each “fun account” and remember those accounts are separate but equal. I’m excited to really dig into our new system — as with anything, I’m sure there will be a few kinks to work out.