Financial Date

Staying true to my Self Examination, TheHusband and I finally sat down yesterday and had our first financial date.  It was awkward, uncomfortable, and not quite romantic (as many 1sts dates are), but I left feeling very optimisitic (as I hope all your 1st dates are!)

In 2 weeks, we will be married for an entire year (squeal!), but financially, we are still very independent.  We needed to get out act together.  So, we sat down and made a budget, listing everything we do spend money on, and everything we would LIKE to spend money on.  Then we broke out the percentage each of our incomes bring to that total.  This way we each fairly contribute to our bills/savings/long term planning based on our percentage income.  When all that is paid, we each get the same percent of the remaining funds for our personal use.  Does that make sense?  So for example, if your spouse makes 51% of your total income, he pays 51% of the bills, but also gets 51% of the remaining funds.  We think that this is the most fair, since we both have good salaries and no kids, and understand this will change drastically once children enter the picture.

I was really surprised by the results:
1) According to our plan, I will have less Katie money than I think I spend now, and TheHusband will have a lot more fun money than he spends! (Kate Spade, I will miss you so! :( )
2) The bills were pretty much shared equally, which is a good thing!
3) We finally have a savings plan to account for things such as vacations, Christmas gifts, and someday way down the line, children. (In addition to our regular savings account.)

We know our plan will need some tweaking.  Therefore, we have given ourselves 2 months to get everything straightened out.  We will have to do a lot of switching direct deposit accounts, and also add expenses we didn't think about initially.  I even scheduled our 2nd date on my Outlook calendar for June.  It's not going to be easy, but I am confident that the payoff will be well worth it.  Our finances have been the elephant in the room for a looooooong time, and I'm sooo relieved that we have a plan!  Plus, its one more thing to cross of my list :)

Have you all gone through similar financial experiences?  Any tips to share?

Hope you're having a great weekend!
-K