It’s already another year and Valentine’s Day is around the corner again.  Last year, I talked about cohabitation agreements for Valentine’s Day (I’m so romantic, I know), so this year, I thought I would talk about “THE MERGE” of finances (or not).  A lot of questions about money arise when two people are living together as a couple under the same roof and sharing the same bills.  The decision to keep separate accounts or have all the bills and paychecks going into one joint account is different depending on each couple’s needs and wants.  Considering the fact that the major reason couples argue is all about money, this is a very important decision to make as a couple.

There are a lot of things to think about when deciding between one joint account or to have separate accounts.

Seeing as I haven’t made a pros and cons list in a while (and you all know I love making them!), I thought I would make one to highlight the options in order to facilitate better decision making.

PROS of a Joint Account:

• Less hassle (money comes in, money goes out from one account)
• Less time needed to figure out the month to month expense tracking
• Can be considered the “epitome” of a united cohesive relationship, the “what’s mine is also yours” mentality and that is “our money” instead of “my money”
• Less confusing
• More egalitarian- if one spouse doesn’t make as much as the other spouse, the lower income spouse will benefit
• Will be easier to do taxes (I think…!)
• If you have one credit card linked to it, then that’s double the effort in collecting travel reward points

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In the spirit of Valentines Day, I thought I would write about the idea of living together before getting married. Before you tie the knot and spend $20,000 to $40,000 on a wedding, why not “test drive” living together and see if it will work BEFORE you plunk down $40,000 for that one day of happiness? I know, I know. Very romantic of me.  I am pragmatic, what can I say.

According to Statistics Canada:

The latest estimates from Statistics Canada in 2008 suggest that 38 per cent of married couples in Canada will divorce by their 30th wedding anniversary (divorce beyond that point is rare). The percentages range from 22 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador to 48 per cent in Quebec. In the U.S., the figure is 44 per cent.

In my family studies class that I took back in university, I read that people who live common law have a higher rate of divorce.  The argument for this is that if you live common law and you and your partner fight about the same things over and over, some people believe that when they get married, these problems will magically disappear.  Hence couples divorce when they realize that those problems that weren’t fixable didn’t go away with the $40,000 celebration.

We test drive cars before we buy them, we try on clothes before we buy them, now why wouldn’t we try out living together before we get married?

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