Someone left an comment on the older blog about Keith and I having the financial chat, and i'm proud to say we actually have. After everything the happened with Brian and I, I wanted to make sure that Keith had the same thoughts I did about the future, goals, etc.
We decided when we get married, we won't look at things as mine and his, but as ours. He doesn't have any credit cards in his name (he has a debit card that lets him borrow up to $500) so his credit score for the most part is really unestablished as of now. We decided i'd handle the money, but we'd make decisions together and we would both be treated as equals. Regardless of who takes home how much, we'll each get the same amount of "fun" money that we can use for whatever we'd like without telling the other person what it was for. Most likely this will be cash taken out once a month.
We also are both on board with paying down the mortgage and trying to make the condo work until for another 5 years or so... then we'd like to get a place that has an actually sunny backyard and with a garage.
we also decided what to do when Keith starts actually working. After we get taxes covered, we'll take 10% and put it into a Retirement account for Keith, 30% towards paying down the current mortgage, 30% towards liquid savings (first the EF, then after we get a comfortable amount, well save for large things... maybe even the yard and garage), 10% giving/charity, 20% fun (10% for me, 10% keith)
This works out because we can pay almost all of our bills from my income alone, but we will adjust and see how it all works out. If we need more money for house hold expenses, we can always break up those to 30% chunks into 20% and then we can have 20% towards our living expenses.
It sounds like you're on the same page. Good job.
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