Hannah mentioned this briefly, but I just want to reiterate the importance of having a personal emergency fund in addition to joint accounts. Financial abuse, and other forms of domestic abuse, really can happen to anyone. I don't care how much you trust your partner, everyone should have a "running away fund" that no one else has access to! Sounds dramatic but it could seriously save your life. Love the spreadsheet info! already thinking about how my spreadsheets could be improved...
It’s also something that could keep you afloat if, heaven forbid, something were to happen to your partner and the joint account simultaneously, such that you lose access.
Yesss I love your money videos! My boyfriend and I split all of our shared expenses but don’t have a joint account yet. Now I’m just imagining all the new and different spreadsheets I’d need lmao
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I have always been a keen subscriber to this channel mate, i admire how factual you put out your messages. Crypto currencies continue to play a commanding role in the digital market and they are not looking to slow down soonest. Investors are looking to a bullish move so as to earn from hoarding, while traders are earning from price movements. Trading has always been more profitable means of earning, this has been a major step for me, I have found a crypto guide is NICHOLAS MYRON and his signals are top notch. I must say, I haven’t seen any service as his, I made over 15 Btc within 5 weeks, and this was done solely from my daily trade sessions on my live trading account, trading from my experience is the most lucrative opportunity crypto offers yet, every crypto trader should learn the art and utilize its gains.NICHOLAS can be reached on Instagram @nicholas__fxtrade . Buy the dip....
I'm 18 and single and obviously this is not something really relevant to me at this moment but i like having this information for the future and it's weird to me that these vital systems are a taboo in society. I really appreciate your talking about these important issues. Sooo... Thanks.
@@morehannah exactly! I just wanted to thank you for filling these gaps in common knowledge and for doing it in a way that it's interesting for me to watch your videos even though it's not immediately relevant! You're a really good "influencer" that way!!!
Doesn't matter what the system is - the main thing is to have something you and your other half agree on and are both happy with. (Oh, and talking about anything with your other half is always a good thing).
@@morehannah it's shocking to hear that to be honest. I'm Australian and we definitely learned about budgeting and compound interest at school. We probably could've spent more time on it but the basics were there.
Two years ago I financially screwed myself. I unknowingly took on more expenses than I could afford and my account kept overdrafting each month. At this point I was doing no sort of tracking what so ever. I listened to an episode of the podcast How to Money and they said to at the very least just track your spending. You don't need to change anything, just track it. So I was like "Clearly I'm not good with money, let's start tracking my money." So I made version 1.0 of my spreadsheet! It's been two years and I think I'm probably on version 5.0 of my spreadsheet because I keep adding more things, making it prettier, getting more and more specific with my categories so I can really see the trends in my spending. I've recently started a whole new spreadsheet that's just for food spending. So I'm itemizing every food purchase down to the type of veggies I'm buying so I can reduce my monthly spending on food (I've reduced it from $600 CAD to $350 CAD a month since tracking). I'm so glad I took that initial step to start tracking because I was able to unscrew myself within 8 months and get myself in a really good spot now.
*screenshots spreadsheet* Also my partner and I have the same system - one joint account with a joint savings, and then a personal account each with a savings each. Our wage is paid into our own accounts, and then we put all but £X into our joint so that we can cover the bills and have our own money. When it comes to purchases, we discuss together who it'll benefit for which account for it to come out of. E.g. if its a game we both want it'll come out of the joint, but if I wanted to buy new clothes it would come out of my account. We've had this system since we started living together in 2015 and it hasn't failed us yet!
Yes, love a spreadsheet! I was doing my own personal finance tracking using a spreadsheet adapted from One Big Happy Life and was so excited to apply it to the whole household when we got married a few months ago. I am definitely the organizer and my husband and I do things very similarly to you and Dan. The one difference is that we have quite a large salary disparity (I make ~ 4 times my husband). We discussed doing it the way you described where we each contribute to a joint account, but my husband felt guilty that he couldn't afford to contribute very much and I felt guilty that he didn't have much left over each month for fun stuff while I had more than enough. Really, I view my income as "our income" so I decided to change how we were doing things in order to make it feel more like that. We both changed our paychecks to direct deposit into the joint account and looked at the pooled salary as "our" monthly income. Then we each budgeted a certain amount of money each month for personal things like hobby/subscriptions/clothes/coffee/beauty and that amount of money gets automatically transferred from the joint account to our personal accounts each month. Once that money is in our personal accounts, we can do whatever we like with it without having to ask the other person. The joint account then gets used for everything else like groceries, going out to eat together, household bills, subscriptions we both use, joint savings goals, etc. Really the math has not changed, my husband is still contributing less to the joint account, but doing it this way has removed the guilt and has helped us maximize our happiness and financial progress.
this is me. I have been with my boyfriend for 6 years now and I still don't know exactly his salary buy he makes way less than me, but now with the pandemic, I don't a have job so now we only survived with his low salary. So, you never know when everything is going to change. fuck COVID haha.
My husband and I do the same. We both decided that any wages are ‘our money’ and then we have a certain amount each month that goes out to our personal accounts to spend however we like. And actually, since we had kids I earn less (as I went part time) but we decided that I’d get more in my personal account each month because I’m out and about with the kids so much more (well pre-covid anyways).
Hi Hannah run the same joint and personal account system and works well. One thing you didn’t mention (that I would recommend) is credit cards used correctly. I use a credit card as a month buffer. So every month the card is cleared back to £0. But this gives you (1) an increased credit score (2) an extra month to pay for your purchases (3) a known set date when you pay for multiple things (4) insurance incase the worst happening on larger purchases (5) points / cash back depending on the card (ones like Tesco and British Airways are good). Hope this helps and as always great vid 👍
I’m old-fashioned - I’ve picked this up from my dad, who’s an accountant - so I have a physical finances book. There’s something really cathartic about writing all those numbers down by hand. Great video btw! Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏
@@morehannah It’s basically just pages and pages of spreadsheets in a book, so the layout isn’t particularly specific. I just find it useful to have everything written down.
I loved this! I realised that I've never been talked through grown-up personal finances (credit cards, mortgage payments, loans etc) and I find it all very intimidating. I don't know if I'm alone in this and I somehow missed out on this particular life lesson or people just wing it when they come to it? Would you be willing to talk about how you went about applying for mortgages, credit cards etc, what you learnt in the application process and the best tips for saving money/improving your credit score?
You’re definitely not alone. It was never covered in school! I actually did a video all about how I got my flat/mortgage. It was before I started this channel so it’s on my “Hannah Witton” channel! X
I would also recommend UA-cam channels like Two Cents and others for education on all the various topics. I have learned so much just from watching these videos!
My husband and I have a joint account and whilst we've been married (13yrs) we've hardly had any disagreements over our finances. Whilst he oversees the account and handles bills, we make financial decisions together and agree on budgets for things. He set up an excel spreadsheet with our budget (monthly and yearly) and we both put in what we spend. I also try and regularly tell him how much I appreciate what he does and I value his skills x x x
It's great that you're being so open about personal finance. Do you and Dan have any plans for retirement savings, other big savings goals, or general investments?
Love this! My partner and I got our first joint account together a few months ago. I make more than him right now so instead of the 50/50 split, we calculated our average monthly spending then figured out what percent of our income we'd both have to contribute to cover the amount. It was my idea even though it means that I currently contribute more but it felt like the fairest option for us and definitely required communication and planning!
I'd really recommend the "She's On The Money" podcast, it's Australian but has some great topics. Also Australian but the Barefoot Investor books give a really clear structure on setting up and managing your finances ✨
LOVE seeing other's personal finance tools! I use a budget table I crafted over the years, but also use an edited version of One Big Happy Life's budget form as a tracker and their net worth tracker about twice a year too 😁
Loved this video Hannah! It’s always nice to hear someone else who uses the same “joint account for shared purchases payed towards in different percentages but everything is emotionally equal.” method. I’m an artist and my partner works in information systems, so we understand he will always make more than me and having us both pay 50/50 didn’t really feel fair, but we also didn’t like the idea of “once you get married you share everything and have one big account together” because I think maintaining your own personal finances regardless of marriage is important.
I love seeing videos like this! We've actually done our shared money the other way around: our money all comes into the same joint account as we earn similar amounts of money and also have more shared money goals (like buying a house, getting married at some point and going on holidays) that it felt more sensible to save that money from our shared account. Regarding own money: we each get a set allowance each month to spend as we please, though we do also occasionally do some personal stuff from the shared account (after agreeing on it together). The main issue we're currently having is how we deal with buying necessary clothes. We probably don't get a high enough allowance to buy that ourselves and for the most part necessities come out of our shared account, but clothes can add up... So that is one point to tackle for us, still :)
YES SPREADSHEETS. I'm the financial tracker in my relationship. I have a spreadsheet that essentially acts as a banking transaction tracker, but also allows me to add lines for upcoming deductions (like outstanding credit card bills) so there are no surprises. Then I keep another spreadsheet where we list all of our monthly bills, and we take our yearly or quarterly bills and break those down into monthly costs as well so we can keep putting money aside for those. And then we have a third spreadsheet where we track our savings - right now we just keep two pools of money: travel and emergency/household improvements. It seems like a lot, but the combination of the three has allowed me to know how much money we ACTUALLY have, which helps us make decisions so we can save more.
I also love budgeting and numbers, and do most of that handling in my marriage! We use the HomeBudget app because it can have two users, so we can see all the things. And we also do the personal accounts/joint account/savings accounts thing, so handy. We talk money really frequently which we feel great about, and a lot of our couple friends don't seem to do that, and that worries me! To each their own, but it's important. Thanks for sharing your spreadsheets!
I love when you talk about spreadsheets! In the process of buying property with a partner so I’m now very excited to give a spreadsheet of my own a go!
As a Financial Educator and Counselor by trade THANK YOU for this video. I sincerely hope it helps tons of people realize how important their finances are and how important it is to talk about money.
I've been using You Need a Budget (YNAB) for years now and love it. You can make your budget as simple or detailed as you want and can really geek out on all the details. It's also structured to help with figuring out budgeting and getting a hold of your money, which is cool.
Until very recently we did joint account contributions proportionally. Take both our NET incomes added together, divided one income by the total to get a %. Then we work out how much we need in joint account and put in our percentage of it. But we’ve just changed to make it so we both have the same amount left over in our own accounts. Both are great systems. Love a spreadsheet moment
It depends how detailed you want to get with it (you sound like me so I’m guessing very!) but I also go down to totalling up Xmas and birthday presents for the year and dividing by 12! Just so you don’t get hit in one month. Ohh just at the end of the vid and I suggest once your car is paid off that you continue to save the same amount towards your next car to avoid consumer debt in the future. I love spreadsheets!
If you haven't already read it, I *highly* recommend the book Money: A User's Guide by Laura Whateley! Even if, like me, you're pretty clued up on your finances, her book is SO GOOD and helpful - I'm not a massive re-reader, but I've read it twice through! :) The boyfriend and I opened a joint account when we planned to move in together. The flat fell through unfortunately, but we currently use it for meals out: perfectly split bills! 😁
Oooh yes, I do love your spread sheet! I have no need for a joint account, but I do have a spreadsheet for my own finances. It's not something I think a lot of 20 year olds do but the organisation brings me a lot of joy :)
I have never had nor am I close to acquiring a significant other but the mutual finances is a mountain I think about ALOT when it comes to relationship logistics. This video showed me it doesnt have to be complicated, thanks Hannah!
Wow the timing of this is great! My partner and I are talking about moving in soon and I am fairly organized with money (since like augustus so like not for that long but still haha) and he hasnt had to really think about it until now. I love tracking this shit too so have my own little spreadsheet and would love to make a joint one too once we’re there
Love the financial stuff. I do have a joint account with my spouse and am also the manager of our finances. I personally love using the software You Need a Budget to manage our regular finances, it does cost a certain amount annually but it's totally worth it from how easy it is to use. I've also used Mint to keep track of the broader financial trends, annual averages and whatnot.
i love your spreadsheet thank you for sharing it! i'm just getting into managing my finances better and that's going to be a goal for me especially in the new year. I've just been keeping track of my spending and how much I put away each paycheck. It's been super great to feel in control and in the know of my money!
We have a very kinda separate system really. No joint accounts, bills are spit up between us, I sort some she sorts others (this was decided early on as I was earning a lot more than her essentially we have a 2 thirds 1 third split). Then we had issues regards paying for food so we sorted that with a credit card that's basically just used for food or joint purchases (DIY stuff, anything for the house etc) which just get split down the middle. I keep a spreadsheet for my spending as I found that my savings were stagnant for quite awhile, I quite enjoyed making this actually I worked it in such a way that it shows a saving output every month and I just try and keep that in the positive.
That was super interesting! And I think it's so important that you included the parts about financial abuse and being financially independent! I don't live with my boyfriend yet, but because we're long distance when we visit each other we need to split groceries and eating out costs, and it's a bit of a pain because he has an actual job and I'm doing an internship, so our income levels are very different, but my parents can help me whereas he's supporting himself fully, so it's really hard to know how to split expenses. Also, we live in different countries with different currencies (we both work in the same country but I live across the border), so it's really a pain when trying to track expenses (including for my personal finances, because I get paid in a currency but pay rent and groceries in another!). So if anyone has tips and tricks for cross-border finance tracking and big salary differences I'm all ears!
This was SO helpful. My partner and I have had a joint card for a year now, but we have used it only once. LOL This inspired us to start trying to develop a budget! Wish us luck!
I am going to keep hammering on the same point. There is a lot of mental effort and work that goes into planning stuff, keeping track of appointments, doing finances. Unpaid work. And that work very rarely gets put on the chore wheel or divided up like the dishes or the cleaning or walking the dog. And, surprise, surprise, it's almost always women who are the organised ones, with the organised personality, who are just better suited for keeping track of everything. Funny how that works out.
i'm seventeen, i just graduated high school last year, and i'm trying to move out of home by may 2022, so i've been watching lots and lots of personal finance videos to learn how to actually keep track and become more conscientious of my spending in order to save up for a small apartment with friends, because school seriously taught me nothing so thank u!! (also i've started to use notion to track everything!)
I ADORE this, thank you so much! So refreshing to have joint finances presented as an exciting thing! Often taboo's mean that even if there's loads of communication within a relationship, things get tricky when neither person has any idea of what they're doing as there's no model to follow, this is so helpful as a way of breaking that taboo down and sharing what works for you and Dan! Thank you so much!!
We've been married for more than a year, and have been thinking about having a joint account for a while. We each have our own accounts and split the expenses also according to how much income each of us get, and we have made a joint emergency fund (both also have our own!). We talk monthly about our finances (used to have a spread sheet, now we don't use it). It has been working really well for us, but there are benefits for the joint account that may make our life easier in the long run. Staying independently economically stable was really important since the beginning (esp for me), it gives us so much more peace and really helps us in planning for our future together, like it's an added layer of freedom that lets us choose each other as well. Thank you for sharing your ways!
This is what my gf and I did when we were living together - we had separate accounts but also a joint account where we deposited a % of our income. We use it for mortgage, grocery, etc. bills. She also the the one manages it, haha. I can't handle that mental load, not sure if it's just me or part of my anxiety but I have trouble thinking about household finances. I just make sure I deposit money and there's always money in there for bills.
So we do also have a joined account for shared fincaces and then seperate ones as well. Since my partner earns more money right now he pays more for rent, food etc. We each have a spreadsheet for ourselves and you can enter the budget you have for things and then how much you actually spend. So if you spend more on clothes you will have less next month but if you spend little on entertainment you have more in that category so you can move money around. It sounds kinda complicated but is actually really good for seeing what can spend and how much you actually do spend each month.
I love spreadsheets! I do not track personal finances really, but I do track my investments: so how much new money I have invested in a month, how much dividends or interest I have received and what are the account balances at the end of each month. In a sense I antibudget, I try to automate most investing so that just goes to a different account at the beginning of the month and the rest I spend. If I have some money left before the next payday that goes usually to top up the emergency fund. Have been using the system for the past 5 years. My spreadsheet has charts and auto colour coding depending on how good or bad the income was etc. Really love it.
I currently have 3 different finance spreadsheets: one for spending tracking on a daily basis for each month; a budget spreadsheet with account totals; and a savings account spreadsheet. I've never felt so on track with everything! I don't currently have a joint account with my other half, but I've told him that it will make sense for household expenditure as it will all be in one place. But we'd have our own accounts for whatever we want to do with the rest of the money we earn. I do love seeing what other people use, as I'm always looking to steal bits that I really like!
I absolutely love spreadsheets!!! They make me feel so much more in control of my finances. I’m 20 and my mom taught me to budget in high school which has really helped me have a good relationship with money.
Love this video! Would also love to learn how you two talked about wills/power of attorney/beneficiary stuff too. It's bonkers to think how many big life things signing a marriage license changes.
I find your videos on personal finance so helpful! Actually started making spreadsheets monthly as a result and it’s helped me so much practically and mentally. My partner finds opening up about finances tough. We don’t live together atm but when we do I will defo fall back on this to set things up and help her too ☺️
I love this! I'm still single, but I think being organized in my finances now will make it much easier to combine or explain to someone later. I have a paper budget book I got on Amazon that I physically write down all my spending in, something about having to actually write it out helps hold me accountable to my budgets. Then I have two spreadsheets, one I transfer all the data from the paper into that makes it so much easier to total up. The other is a "Net Worth" sheet I update monthly where I total up all my assets and debts (checking, savings, retirement/401k, HSA (yay American health care...), car value (already paid off), credit card etc.). It just helps me keep an eye on the big picture of my finances in addition to the monthly spending. Oh, and keeping track of those yearly bills was a big deal for me too! Once I finally tracked them all down, I've got a similar account set up just to pay those.
I have an incredibly stable revenue stream through my work and since I don't like tracking things by line my method for finances is every first of the month I input the amounts of all my accounts (checking, savings, investments, etc). I use excel to total everything and then find the difference between the current and previous month. This lets me see trends across my finances. Great video Hannah!
I wish old-school video responses were a thing! We split everything down the middle in this millennial couple, except rent - one pays more because they have a higher income, but we have no joint accounts. Instead we use the same budgeting software and have one another as "accounts", and reconcile split expenses once a month. It's a combination of Todoist and YNAB, pretty millennial 😂 Anyway, I wrote a book on money (filled with cats) that talks about different methods for splitting expenses, and I love hearing about different peoples' methods!
Here's a funny story about joint accounts: A few years ago I created a joint account with my boyfriend at the time so we could save up to move to London. We broke up after moving here, but the joint account is in New Zealand and we both have to be there in person to close it. So 6 years later we have this account that neither of us uses but that we can't close!
I used to be Self employed and so my income varied and was often lower than my partners, we decided when we moved in together that we would put an equal percentage of our income into the joint account, this has worked out wonderfully and neither of us feel put out by the amount we put in/have left in our own accounts! (we also made lots of there decisions in the bath with wine or whilst walking! which was a very chilled way to discuss such things!)
I've used the One Big Happy Life spreadsheet for annual budgeting, but after having some daily/monthly spending struggles, I gave in and paid for the YNAB software and it has been a gamechanger for me. There's a bit of a learning curve, but I realized I was spending so much time reworking and then giving up on spreadsheet budgets that I wasn't actually watching my money (other than some basic metrics). I'm also single and don't have to check in with anyone else, but I am very excited to have a budget meeting with myself at the end of the year to review and plan ahead!
Thank you so much for mentioning financial abuse as a part of this video! I work with survivors of domestic abuse and SO many people don't realise that control over finances is a legit (and illegal!) form of domestic abuse. Fab video
My partner and I started sharing our finances for grocery shopping (except meat) when we moved in. When we moved to our second and current appartment we joined them fully because that was easier for our saving goals and we were planning to get married and join eventually either way. Got married last month :) I just have some excel sheets that I made myself. We have more detailed sinking funds for everything from car to cats to saving for a kitchen for when we move next year... Also it's less colorful.
Hi Hannah :) My husband and I have a joint credit card and savings account but separate checking accounts, mostly because we were too lazy to switch the direct deposit with our employers. We pretty much treat all the money as "our money" and don't keep track of which account things are being paid out of. Generally we try to put everything on our joint credit card to earn points, and I pay for the credit card out of my account while he pays the rent out of his. We just transfer money to each other if we run low and deposit in the savings when we have extra. We do use a spreadsheet to keep track of spending but we're lucky and don't worry too much about how much we spend other than just keeping an eye on spending trends to avoid lifestyle inflation. We just try not to eat out too much or shop too much, but it's more of a general feeling than a strict budget.
I love personal finance too and I love to geek out about it. I also have a spreadsheet and I like to do an end of year summary of all my spending with pie charts and bar graphs. Thanks for being open and willing to talk about personal finance!
So I'm really curious, how do you calculate individual equity in case of a split? Is that something you guys discussed? I can imagine it can be a bit unpleasant, but I can't imagine not doing it.
Yeah we discussed this. We basically worked out the % of the deposit I put down when I bought the flat and if we split I get that % back and then the rest of the property is split 50/50 because we’ve both been paying off the mortgage. We had to pay a solicitor to do a Deed of Trust to spell it all out.
@@morehannah I'm so glad you did that! I know so many people who just add someone onto their property after getting married like WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER and then before you know it one is suing the other claiming 50% even though this other person paid in WAYYY more as it was their property first.
Love this! I use a spreadsheet for budgeting, but have recently been using a kakeibo (Japanese money diary) to track my spending. Finding it so helpful to actually write down my spending by hand- it's making me more mindful of my spending, and helping me to spot areas where I spend more than I thought!
Your system is so close to that of me and my fiancé's it's crazy! Both of us love a spreadsheet and glad to hear other couples are similarly as invested in tracking their spending! Genuinely no idea how people manage their finances without it!
My partner and I use YNAB (You Need A Budget) for both of our personal and joint account. You can easily do categories, it will tell you where you're over budget for things, and you can figure out how much you need to put away each month for semi-annual or annual things like road tax or the bins and much more obviously. It is a subscription based service though.
Love this! We have a joint account and also love our spreadsheets! We’ve always earned different amounts but we put the same amount into the joint account (say 1500) then keep the same amount in our personal accounts as ‘guilt free spending’ (say 100) then whatever is leftover from each of our salaries goes into the emergency fund. It works really well for us. The ‘guilt free spending’ pot is relatively new for us as we found it difficult too working out the boundary between joint and personal spending. We also have an ‘annual bills’ account for exactly the same reason as you! It’s a lifesaver having that tucked away, but we try to pay those bills out of the joint account if we can that month, then the ‘annual bills’ account just keeps growing as a pseudo second emergency fund 👍 I love this and could talk about it all day 😆
Oh my husband and I do the exact same thing. We made a joint account when we started living together after a year. We both contribute 60% of our pay so it’s equitable, and we use that for all of “our” things that we share.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but I love using the app/budget template called YNAB - definitely would recommend it. Super helpful for seeing trends and setting savings goals! Pretty customizable and also helpful for tracking credit card spending
Yess, I love seeing your systems! I tracked my spending for the first two years after I moved out at 18. I've been wanting to get back into the habit, so this is helpful motivation! It feels especially relevant because I'm living with my family again at 24 yo while I work and attend grad school. My dad and I have made the decision to buy an car together because my 27 yo car is dying and my 16 yo sister doesn't have a car at all. I get trade some in value for my car, and my dad pay for the car so I can pay for grad school without loans, and then I'll pay the rest! I know people who struggle to have healthy financial relationships with their parents, and I also think it's so silly that talking about finances is so often seen as taboo. It's so helpful to see this!
Watching this reminded me to update my excel 😂 My approach is slightly different cause I‘m a student just living off of my savings that has to last me two years so I did the math for my fixed costs, and an emergency fund and then divided it by 24 and am mostly trying to track all my spending to make sure I don‘t go over every month, cause I am terrified of being in a different country and suddenly not having any money anymore (that said I am very privileged to even have been able to save up this much money and not need a loan and my parents would absolutely help me out if I needed it, but still, money stresses the hell out of me...)
i work for a big UK bank in debt management and oh my god if everyone was this organised my job would be sooooo much easier😂no but really this is one of the most important things to spend a bit of time and focus on even if it’s not as in depth as Hannah! it’ll save you so much aggro in the long run TRUST me xo
My bank in the Netherlands has your excels build in in their mobile app. They recognize your spending and put it in categories so you have a tile for "where is my money going" so you see where money comes in and where it goes to. And besides that you can in your savings account make little piggy banks for savings and organize savings and set goals and transfer money automatically to those piggy months each month. And it calculates how much you have to set aside each month to reach your deadline on time :) IT IS AMAZING, my finances gotten so much better since they integrated it. I myself have Rabobank but more banks in the Netherlands have it.
I would love to see a video on starting your journey of better finance management! I'm currently a student and next year I'm starting in a job where, for the first time ever, I'll know exactly how much I'm earning every month. I'd love to know about what kind of savings goals I should set myself and how I should be managing my money as a young woman. Thanks Hannah 😊😊
This has been super useful so thank you! My baby is 6 weeks old and my husband has finally got a job (starting Monday) after losing his previous one in march, we actually need to sort out finances and savings and baby clothes and formula and nappies and life insurance and and and *hyperventilates.* I need to sit down and do more than my usual notes page on my phone, as for the last 8 months I've just been transferring my husband the money he needs to cover his personal bills and everything else has been covered by me. We haven't had any other money left so that's that
I'm single, so this does not apply to me but it is cool to hear of the way to manage finances when in a relationship. I love hearing about this stuff as I only recently started my personal finance journey not too long ago and still learning a lot of things. This was very entertaining
It's so interesting to see how differently people deal with finances. My husband and I share all of our accounts and money (except for gifts that were specifically given to one of us etc.). When it comes to bigger purchases, we make decisions together. Otherwise, we trust each other to spend within reason. It's been working great for us. :) But obviously, it requires that both partners have similar spending habits, the same financial goals and are willing to share their income... so it may not be for everyone.
I had the same realisation about me and my boyfriend's food shop cost! At first we were like, why the hell are we spending so much more than usually, and then it clicked. It's weird because it feels like we're spending more money, but actually, we're saving - especially on alcohol (a beer at home for 1€ vs. at a bar for 4-5€) 😅 we also have a joint account and calculate what we put into it every month in proportion to our income rather than splitting it 50/50 - it's just the fair thing to do in my opinion, love to hear you talking about it!
I made a 1 year budget at the start of the year (which helps plan for those non monthly things like insurance) and it turned into a real blessing when covid hit since I was able to virtually move money estimates around and see how it would affect me. Each month starts with a budget amount and the discretionary categories get updated with the actual spent amounts each month.
I have been saying for years that buying a house is a bigger commitment than getting married. It’s such a big deal. Also I find it interesting how everyone splits their bills. My husband and I keep our finances semi split. We have a joint account dubbed our Home Fund that we both contribute to equally each month but it’s mainly a savings account that we use for home related expenses and our pet bills. This actually came about because we initially had a roommate when we bought our house and his rent was solely put into our home fund since we didn’t need for covering our normal bills. Saved us when we had our first home related disaster. So when he moved out we just 50/50 split that rent amount and kept contributing to that fund. But the rest of our bills are divvied up based on income and we are individually responsible for paying those. I have more discretionary income since my husband covers our mortgage so I am in charge of all our savings for vacations, emergencies (unrelated to our house), long term savings, etc. I’m definitely a paper planner person, so I have pages in our home planner with the break down of how much all our bills and expenses totaled up to for the last couple of years. It’s been helpful when we need to redivide bills between us. Also gives me a good way to anticipate expense like our energy bill, since I live in the Midwest here in the US and we have drastic temperature changes between the winter and summer months. So I know in the winter my energy bill skyrockets. I too love all things personal finance and organizing money. Although with 2020 being so awful it’s been hard to stay motivated to look at it all.
My husband and I have a joint account but all the bills ended up coming out of my personal account because I could get cashback on them so he just sends some money to me each month. The joint account has become the place that we chuck cheques from grandparents that are written to both of us and where we make small house related purchases like Christmas lights and kitchen wear! And I'm also definitely the one who deals with the spreadsheets and tracking of bills - I've been doing it with my personal account since I was old enough to have control of my own finances so I just added it to my spreadsheet!
I have started many a budget spreadsheet, but until recently every time I did that, all it told me was that my bare minimum spending was greater than my expected income, so I abandoned them. No point in a fancy spreadsheet when you can cover the whole thing with the one rule: do not spend any money that isn't on rent, gas, or food. Things have improved in the last couple years, though, so maybe I'll try again! I am always curious what information might come out of tracking the details!
I also love personal finance and have a spreadsheet similar to this! My fiance and I are in the early stages of starting to combine our finances and only recently opened a joint savings. I'm excited for when we finally build out a budget/tracker for the both of us. 🤓🤑 I loved this video and found it super helpful for when that time comes!
My partner is an independent contractor, and I have a more “normal” income. When we bought our house, the bank was like “listen, you’re going to have a much easier time if you just do the mortgage under your name.” Not having a steady income really does make things harder.
Yeah, I've tracked my monthly spendings for years, probably since I got monthly money from my parents as a teenager. I love seeing the saved sum increase, perhaps a bit too much, so I have to actively remind myself that it's ok to use that money. My spreadsheet is pretty similar to yours. I also have a "health" category, to track my spendings on medication/hospital visitis/therapist etc. I also, for some reason, like to track the amount of clothes I buy in a year. I have a whole page just to track the clothes and it fascinates me how it differs from year to year. Like in the beginning of this tracking, I bought lots of hoodies, then some year later I fancied jeans, the next year was dresses etc. Numbers are real fun!
We do things in a very similar way! We have a joint account and we each have personal accounts, and all three have checking and savings accounts attached. Our paychecks are deposited into our personal accounts and then we've agreed to put a percentage of our income into the joint account, making sure that it covers all of our joint expenses, plus some extra to save. We could both stand to be better at spreadsheets and this is kinda inspiring me to make one... but it's worked out well enough so far. 😆
I've been Tracking my spendings very similar to you since 2017! And when me and my Boyfriend moved in together Last year, i integrated him Into my spreadsheet. Since we dont have a shared Account, my spreadsheet is basically where we Split our expenses. I also Analyse in that where we buy our food, conventional or organic store, and then we can directly See how much organic food we can afford. I get so geeky about it, i Love to Analyse the Data :D When Not having a Joint Account I think its easier to Talk about what expenses we Share, since its Just a question of putting that in the spreadsheet or not, you dont have to decide when buying which card to use. In our case there is one column which decides who payed, If he did, I did, or which one for both. One Line then Always tells you who has been buying more or less recently. And in the Last year we have never had to exchange Money, since its Always comes out to be equal. Love IT!
My husband and I started out with a joint account, but it morphed into each of us just taking on the expenses that fit our income and having separate accounts. For instance, he pays our house payment and anything associated with his expensive hobbies. I pay for utilities, groceries, and miscellaneous items. Whatever is left over after paying bills and contributing to savings is ours to spend. It helps in all methods if both people are responsible with money, of course.
My partner and I are both super into spreadsheets, so we already had separate systems that we each like! But we do have a joint spreadsheet for joint purchases. And we track who paid for it so that we can even it out over time. (Our incomes are very similar, so we contribute 50-50.)
Great video! My partner and I keep saying we need to do this, sit down and actually go through our finances, but need to get over the mental hurdle of actually starting! The car thing is interesting. Particularly since myself and my partner have very different views on whether spending on cars is worth the money. We both have cars, I see it as a ‘this is very functional and will get me from a to b’ whereas he sees it as something to enjoy more, has a more expensive car out of his choice. So although we both are named drivers on each, we still don’t jointly pay for the expenses. Otherwise I’d be spending a lot of money on cars which I don’t believe to be necessary or worthwhile.
Hannah mentioned this briefly, but I just want to reiterate the importance of having a personal emergency fund in addition to joint accounts. Financial abuse, and other forms of domestic abuse, really can happen to anyone. I don't care how much you trust your partner, everyone should have a "running away fund" that no one else has access to! Sounds dramatic but it could seriously save your life.
Love the spreadsheet info! already thinking about how my spreadsheets could be improved...
It’s also something that could keep you afloat if, heaven forbid, something were to happen to your partner and the joint account simultaneously, such that you lose access.
Yesss I love your money videos! My boyfriend and I split all of our shared expenses but don’t have a joint account yet. Now I’m just imagining all the new and different spreadsheets I’d need lmao
Spreadsheet fantasies 😂
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Never ever joined finances
I'm sure you'll Excel at it.
This is where Hannah as the very type A personality shines.
I have always been a keen subscriber to this channel mate, i admire how factual you put out your messages. Crypto currencies continue to play a commanding role in the digital market and they are not looking to slow down soonest. Investors are looking to a bullish move so as to earn from hoarding, while traders are earning from price movements. Trading has always been more profitable means of earning, this has been a major step for me, I have found a crypto guide is NICHOLAS MYRON and his signals are top notch. I must say, I haven’t seen any service as his, I made over 15 Btc within 5 weeks, and this was done solely from my daily trade sessions on my live trading account, trading from my experience is the most lucrative opportunity crypto offers yet, every crypto trader should learn the art and utilize its gains.NICHOLAS can be reached on Instagram @nicholas__fxtrade . Buy the dip....
I'm 18 and single and obviously this is not something really relevant to me at this moment but i like having this information for the future and it's weird to me that these vital systems are a taboo in society. I really appreciate your talking about these important issues. Sooo... Thanks.
You’ll be in a much better position when it does become relevant than others I imagine! Wish we’d been taught about personal finance in school
@@morehannah exactly! I just wanted to thank you for filling these gaps in common knowledge and for doing it in a way that it's interesting for me to watch your videos even though it's not immediately relevant! You're a really good "influencer" that way!!!
Doesn't matter what the system is - the main thing is to have something you and your other half agree on and are both happy with. (Oh, and talking about anything with your other half is always a good thing).
@@morehannah it's shocking to hear that to be honest. I'm Australian and we definitely learned about budgeting and compound interest at school. We probably could've spent more time on it but the basics were there.
Two years ago I financially screwed myself. I unknowingly took on more expenses than I could afford and my account kept overdrafting each month. At this point I was doing no sort of tracking what so ever. I listened to an episode of the podcast How to Money and they said to at the very least just track your spending. You don't need to change anything, just track it. So I was like "Clearly I'm not good with money, let's start tracking my money." So I made version 1.0 of my spreadsheet! It's been two years and I think I'm probably on version 5.0 of my spreadsheet because I keep adding more things, making it prettier, getting more and more specific with my categories so I can really see the trends in my spending. I've recently started a whole new spreadsheet that's just for food spending. So I'm itemizing every food purchase down to the type of veggies I'm buying so I can reduce my monthly spending on food (I've reduced it from $600 CAD to $350 CAD a month since tracking). I'm so glad I took that initial step to start tracking because I was able to unscrew myself within 8 months and get myself in a really good spot now.
Oh wow really proud of you😊 well done mate
*screenshots spreadsheet*
Also my partner and I have the same system - one joint account with a joint savings, and then a personal account each with a savings each. Our wage is paid into our own accounts, and then we put all but £X into our joint so that we can cover the bills and have our own money. When it comes to purchases, we discuss together who it'll benefit for which account for it to come out of. E.g. if its a game we both want it'll come out of the joint, but if I wanted to buy new clothes it would come out of my account. We've had this system since we started living together in 2015 and it hasn't failed us yet!
That's the situation me and my boyfriend use as well! It's worked great for us
Yes, love a spreadsheet! I was doing my own personal finance tracking using a spreadsheet adapted from One Big Happy Life and was so excited to apply it to the whole household when we got married a few months ago. I am definitely the organizer and my husband and I do things very similarly to you and Dan. The one difference is that we have quite a large salary disparity (I make ~ 4 times my husband). We discussed doing it the way you described where we each contribute to a joint account, but my husband felt guilty that he couldn't afford to contribute very much and I felt guilty that he didn't have much left over each month for fun stuff while I had more than enough. Really, I view my income as "our income" so I decided to change how we were doing things in order to make it feel more like that. We both changed our paychecks to direct deposit into the joint account and looked at the pooled salary as "our" monthly income. Then we each budgeted a certain amount of money each month for personal things like hobby/subscriptions/clothes/coffee/beauty and that amount of money gets automatically transferred from the joint account to our personal accounts each month. Once that money is in our personal accounts, we can do whatever we like with it without having to ask the other person. The joint account then gets used for everything else like groceries, going out to eat together, household bills, subscriptions we both use, joint savings goals, etc. Really the math has not changed, my husband is still contributing less to the joint account, but doing it this way has removed the guilt and has helped us maximize our happiness and financial progress.
this is me. I have been with my boyfriend for 6 years now and I still don't know exactly his salary buy he makes way less than me, but now with the pandemic, I don't a have job so now we only survived with his low salary. So, you never know when everything is going to change. fuck COVID haha.
My husband and I do the same. We both decided that any wages are ‘our money’ and then we have a certain amount each month that goes out to our personal accounts to spend however we like.
And actually, since we had kids I earn less (as I went part time) but we decided that I’d get more in my personal account each month because I’m out and about with the kids so much more (well pre-covid anyways).
This came at the perfect time! My BF and I just got engaged, so I'm gathering all the info on budgets, weddings, and houses that I can😂
Congratulations and good luck with all the sorting out.
Congrats!! And yes budgeting and talking about the money stuff is key!
Here are two other accounts I love for finances: Marissa Lyda and One Big Happy Life. I love watching how different couples track their finances on YT
Hi Hannah run the same joint and personal account system and works well. One thing you didn’t mention (that I would recommend) is credit cards used correctly. I use a credit card as a month buffer. So every month the card is cleared back to £0. But this gives you (1) an increased credit score (2) an extra month to pay for your purchases (3) a known set date when you pay for multiple things (4) insurance incase the worst happening on larger purchases (5) points / cash back depending on the card (ones like Tesco and British Airways are good). Hope this helps and as always great vid 👍
I’m old-fashioned - I’ve picked this up from my dad, who’s an accountant - so I have a physical finances book. There’s something really cathartic about writing all those numbers down by hand.
Great video btw! Thank you! 🙏🙏🙏
a physical finances book! does it have a specific layout?? I'd so want to have one if I wasn't already completely digital lol
@@morehannah It’s basically just pages and pages of spreadsheets in a book, so the layout isn’t particularly specific. I just find it useful to have everything written down.
I loved this! I realised that I've never been talked through grown-up personal finances (credit cards, mortgage payments, loans etc) and I find it all very intimidating. I don't know if I'm alone in this and I somehow missed out on this particular life lesson or people just wing it when they come to it? Would you be willing to talk about how you went about applying for mortgages, credit cards etc, what you learnt in the application process and the best tips for saving money/improving your credit score?
You’re definitely not alone. It was never covered in school! I actually did a video all about how I got my flat/mortgage. It was before I started this channel so it’s on my “Hannah Witton” channel! X
I would also recommend UA-cam channels like Two Cents and others for education on all the various topics. I have learned so much just from watching these videos!
I would really recommend the book ‘Money: A User’s Guide’ by Laura Whateley for advice on getting started with personal finance!
Bad with money with Gaby Dunn is a great podcast demystifying lots of topics around money
I love The Financial Diet on UA-cam.
My husband and I have a joint account and whilst we've been married (13yrs) we've hardly had any disagreements over our finances. Whilst he oversees the account and handles bills, we make financial decisions together and agree on budgets for things. He set up an excel spreadsheet with our budget (monthly and yearly) and we both put in what we spend. I also try and regularly tell him how much I appreciate what he does and I value his skills x x x
"Nerding out...personal finances" I saw the thumbnail and got SO excited!!!! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
It's great that you're being so open about personal finance. Do you and Dan have any plans for retirement savings, other big savings goals, or general investments?
Love this! My partner and I got our first joint account together a few months ago. I make more than him right now so instead of the 50/50 split, we calculated our average monthly spending then figured out what percent of our income we'd both have to contribute to cover the amount. It was my idea even though it means that I currently contribute more but it felt like the fairest option for us and definitely required communication and planning!
I'd really recommend the "She's On The Money" podcast, it's Australian but has some great topics. Also Australian but the Barefoot Investor books give a really clear structure on setting up and managing your finances ✨
I love making financial spreadsheets, they really help me keep track of my purchases and spending habits better! I spend way too much on Chipotle lol
LOVE seeing other's personal finance tools! I use a budget table I crafted over the years, but also use an edited version of One Big Happy Life's budget form as a tracker and their net worth tracker about twice a year too 😁
love One Big Happy Life!
Mustard!!
My husband and I got married three weeks ago, and just yesterday we got our joint account sorted out - this is the perfect time for this video Hannah!
Loved this video Hannah! It’s always nice to hear someone else who uses the same “joint account for shared purchases payed towards in different percentages but everything is emotionally equal.” method. I’m an artist and my partner works in information systems, so we understand he will always make more than me and having us both pay 50/50 didn’t really feel fair, but we also didn’t like the idea of “once you get married you share everything and have one big account together” because I think maintaining your own personal finances regardless of marriage is important.
I love seeing videos like this! We've actually done our shared money the other way around: our money all comes into the same joint account as we earn similar amounts of money and also have more shared money goals (like buying a house, getting married at some point and going on holidays) that it felt more sensible to save that money from our shared account. Regarding own money: we each get a set allowance each month to spend as we please, though we do also occasionally do some personal stuff from the shared account (after agreeing on it together). The main issue we're currently having is how we deal with buying necessary clothes. We probably don't get a high enough allowance to buy that ourselves and for the most part necessities come out of our shared account, but clothes can add up... So that is one point to tackle for us, still :)
YES SPREADSHEETS. I'm the financial tracker in my relationship. I have a spreadsheet that essentially acts as a banking transaction tracker, but also allows me to add lines for upcoming deductions (like outstanding credit card bills) so there are no surprises. Then I keep another spreadsheet where we list all of our monthly bills, and we take our yearly or quarterly bills and break those down into monthly costs as well so we can keep putting money aside for those. And then we have a third spreadsheet where we track our savings - right now we just keep two pools of money: travel and emergency/household improvements.
It seems like a lot, but the combination of the three has allowed me to know how much money we ACTUALLY have, which helps us make decisions so we can save more.
I also love budgeting and numbers, and do most of that handling in my marriage! We use the HomeBudget app because it can have two users, so we can see all the things. And we also do the personal accounts/joint account/savings accounts thing, so handy. We talk money really frequently which we feel great about, and a lot of our couple friends don't seem to do that, and that worries me! To each their own, but it's important. Thanks for sharing your spreadsheets!
I love when you talk about spreadsheets! In the process of buying property with a partner so I’m now very excited to give a spreadsheet of my own a go!
As a Financial Educator and Counselor by trade THANK YOU for this video. I sincerely hope it helps tons of people realize how important their finances are and how important it is to talk about money.
I've been using You Need a Budget (YNAB) for years now and love it. You can make your budget as simple or detailed as you want and can really geek out on all the details. It's also structured to help with figuring out budgeting and getting a hold of your money, which is cool.
Yes!!! Me too, going on 5 years and it's the best! Came to the comments to suggest this!
Until very recently we did joint account contributions proportionally. Take both our NET incomes added together, divided one income by the total to get a %. Then we work out how much we need in joint account and put in our percentage of it. But we’ve just changed to make it so we both have the same amount left over in our own accounts. Both are great systems. Love a spreadsheet moment
It depends how detailed you want to get with it (you sound like me so I’m guessing very!) but I also go down to totalling up Xmas and birthday presents for the year and dividing by 12! Just so you don’t get hit in one month. Ohh just at the end of the vid and I suggest once your car is paid off that you continue to save the same amount towards your next car to avoid consumer debt in the future. I love spreadsheets!
If you haven't already read it, I *highly* recommend the book Money: A User's Guide by Laura Whateley! Even if, like me, you're pretty clued up on your finances, her book is SO GOOD and helpful - I'm not a massive re-reader, but I've read it twice through! :)
The boyfriend and I opened a joint account when we planned to move in together. The flat fell through unfortunately, but we currently use it for meals out: perfectly split bills! 😁
Oooh yes, I do love your spread sheet! I have no need for a joint account, but I do have a spreadsheet for my own finances. It's not something I think a lot of 20 year olds do but the organisation brings me a lot of joy :)
I have never had nor am I close to acquiring a significant other but the mutual finances is a mountain I think about ALOT when it comes to relationship logistics. This video showed me it doesnt have to be complicated, thanks Hannah!
Wow the timing of this is great! My partner and I are talking about moving in soon and I am fairly organized with money (since like augustus so like not for that long but still haha) and he hasnt had to really think about it until now. I love tracking this shit too so have my own little spreadsheet and would love to make a joint one too once we’re there
Love the financial stuff. I do have a joint account with my spouse and am also the manager of our finances. I personally love using the software You Need a Budget to manage our regular finances, it does cost a certain amount annually but it's totally worth it from how easy it is to use. I've also used Mint to keep track of the broader financial trends, annual averages and whatnot.
i love your spreadsheet thank you for sharing it!
i'm just getting into managing my finances better and that's going to be a goal for me especially in the new year.
I've just been keeping track of my spending and how much I put away each paycheck. It's been super great to feel in control and in the know of my money!
We have a very kinda separate system really. No joint accounts, bills are spit up between us, I sort some she sorts others (this was decided early on as I was earning a lot more than her essentially we have a 2 thirds 1 third split). Then we had issues regards paying for food so we sorted that with a credit card that's basically just used for food or joint purchases (DIY stuff, anything for the house etc) which just get split down the middle. I keep a spreadsheet for my spending as I found that my savings were stagnant for quite awhile, I quite enjoyed making this actually I worked it in such a way that it shows a saving output every month and I just try and keep that in the positive.
That was super interesting! And I think it's so important that you included the parts about financial abuse and being financially independent! I don't live with my boyfriend yet, but because we're long distance when we visit each other we need to split groceries and eating out costs, and it's a bit of a pain because he has an actual job and I'm doing an internship, so our income levels are very different, but my parents can help me whereas he's supporting himself fully, so it's really hard to know how to split expenses. Also, we live in different countries with different currencies (we both work in the same country but I live across the border), so it's really a pain when trying to track expenses (including for my personal finances, because I get paid in a currency but pay rent and groceries in another!). So if anyone has tips and tricks for cross-border finance tracking and big salary differences I'm all ears!
Splitwise is a website/app that you can select which currency each entry is!
@@Ehooligan Thank you!
This was SO helpful. My partner and I have had a joint card for a year now, but we have used it only once. LOL This inspired us to start trying to develop a budget! Wish us luck!
I am going to keep hammering on the same point. There is a lot of mental effort and work that goes into planning stuff, keeping track of appointments, doing finances. Unpaid work. And that work very rarely gets put on the chore wheel or divided up like the dishes or the cleaning or walking the dog. And, surprise, surprise, it's almost always women who are the organised ones, with the organised personality, who are just better suited for keeping track of everything. Funny how that works out.
i'm seventeen, i just graduated high school last year, and i'm trying to move out of home by may 2022, so i've been watching lots and lots of personal finance videos to learn how to actually keep track and become more conscientious of my spending in order to save up for a small apartment with friends, because school seriously taught me nothing so thank u!! (also i've started to use notion to track everything!)
I ADORE this, thank you so much! So refreshing to have joint finances presented as an exciting thing! Often taboo's mean that even if there's loads of communication within a relationship, things get tricky when neither person has any idea of what they're doing as there's no model to follow, this is so helpful as a way of breaking that taboo down and sharing what works for you and Dan! Thank you so much!!
I use Notion for finance tracking (and like.... organising my whole entire life lol) and honestly Hannah I think you would love it
We've been married for more than a year, and have been thinking about having a joint account for a while. We each have our own accounts and split the expenses also according to how much income each of us get, and we have made a joint emergency fund (both also have our own!). We talk monthly about our finances (used to have a spread sheet, now we don't use it). It has been working really well for us, but there are benefits for the joint account that may make our life easier in the long run. Staying independently economically stable was really important since the beginning (esp for me), it gives us so much more peace and really helps us in planning for our future together, like it's an added layer of freedom that lets us choose each other as well.
Thank you for sharing your ways!
This is what my gf and I did when we were living together - we had separate accounts but also a joint account where we deposited a % of our income. We use it for mortgage, grocery, etc. bills. She also the the one manages it, haha. I can't handle that mental load, not sure if it's just me or part of my anxiety but I have trouble thinking about household finances. I just make sure I deposit money and there's always money in there for bills.
I just love your videos 😍 I'm obsessed with financial spreadsheet and this video is such a treat haha
So we do also have a joined account for shared fincaces and then seperate ones as well. Since my partner earns more money right now he pays more for rent, food etc. We each have a spreadsheet for ourselves and you can enter the budget you have for things and then how much you actually spend. So if you spend more on clothes you will have less next month but if you spend little on entertainment you have more in that category so you can move money around. It sounds kinda complicated but is actually really good for seeing what can spend and how much you actually do spend each month.
I love spreadsheets! I do not track personal finances really, but I do track my investments: so how much new money I have invested in a month, how much dividends or interest I have received and what are the account balances at the end of each month. In a sense I antibudget, I try to automate most investing so that just goes to a different account at the beginning of the month and the rest I spend. If I have some money left before the next payday that goes usually to top up the emergency fund. Have been using the system for the past 5 years. My spreadsheet has charts and auto colour coding depending on how good or bad the income was etc. Really love it.
I currently have 3 different finance spreadsheets: one for spending tracking on a daily basis for each month; a budget spreadsheet with account totals; and a savings account spreadsheet. I've never felt so on track with everything! I don't currently have a joint account with my other half, but I've told him that it will make sense for household expenditure as it will all be in one place. But we'd have our own accounts for whatever we want to do with the rest of the money we earn. I do love seeing what other people use, as I'm always looking to steal bits that I really like!
I absolutely love spreadsheets!!! They make me feel so much more in control of my finances. I’m 20 and my mom taught me to budget in high school which has really helped me have a good relationship with money.
Anyone else annoyed that none of the suggested videos are related in any way? This is such a great video and it would be nice to be see more like this
I love this! My boyfriend and I just moved in together 3 weeks ago so the timing is perfect
That jumper is GORGEOUS, my finances wish to purchase it
When she sad "MY WIFE" I immediately thought of Ned from Try guys
Love this video! Would also love to learn how you two talked about wills/power of attorney/beneficiary stuff too. It's bonkers to think how many big life things signing a marriage license changes.
I find your videos on personal finance so helpful! Actually started making spreadsheets monthly as a result and it’s helped me so much practically and mentally. My partner finds opening up about finances tough. We don’t live together atm but when we do I will defo fall back on this to set things up and help her too ☺️
I love this! I'm still single, but I think being organized in my finances now will make it much easier to combine or explain to someone later. I have a paper budget book I got on Amazon that I physically write down all my spending in, something about having to actually write it out helps hold me accountable to my budgets. Then I have two spreadsheets, one I transfer all the data from the paper into that makes it so much easier to total up. The other is a "Net Worth" sheet I update monthly where I total up all my assets and debts (checking, savings, retirement/401k, HSA (yay American health care...), car value (already paid off), credit card etc.). It just helps me keep an eye on the big picture of my finances in addition to the monthly spending. Oh, and keeping track of those yearly bills was a big deal for me too! Once I finally tracked them all down, I've got a similar account set up just to pay those.
I have an incredibly stable revenue stream through my work and since I don't like tracking things by line my method for finances is every first of the month I input the amounts of all my accounts (checking, savings, investments, etc). I use excel to total everything and then find the difference between the current and previous month. This lets me see trends across my finances.
Great video Hannah!
I wish old-school video responses were a thing! We split everything down the middle in this millennial couple, except rent - one pays more because they have a higher income, but we have no joint accounts. Instead we use the same budgeting software and have one another as "accounts", and reconcile split expenses once a month. It's a combination of Todoist and YNAB, pretty millennial 😂 Anyway, I wrote a book on money (filled with cats) that talks about different methods for splitting expenses, and I love hearing about different peoples' methods!
Here's a funny story about joint accounts:
A few years ago I created a joint account with my boyfriend at the time so we could save up to move to London. We broke up after moving here, but the joint account is in New Zealand and we both have to be there in person to close it. So 6 years later we have this account that neither of us uses but that we can't close!
I used to be Self employed and so my income varied and was often lower than my partners, we decided when we moved in together that we would put an equal percentage of our income into the joint account, this has worked out wonderfully and neither of us feel put out by the amount we put in/have left in our own accounts! (we also made lots of there decisions in the bath with wine or whilst walking! which was a very chilled way to discuss such things!)
I've used the One Big Happy Life spreadsheet for annual budgeting, but after having some daily/monthly spending struggles, I gave in and paid for the YNAB software and it has been a gamechanger for me. There's a bit of a learning curve, but I realized I was spending so much time reworking and then giving up on spreadsheet budgets that I wasn't actually watching my money (other than some basic metrics). I'm also single and don't have to check in with anyone else, but I am very excited to have a budget meeting with myself at the end of the year to review and plan ahead!
Thank you so much for mentioning financial abuse as a part of this video! I work with survivors of domestic abuse and SO many people don't realise that control over finances is a legit (and illegal!) form of domestic abuse. Fab video
My partner and I started sharing our finances for grocery shopping (except meat) when we moved in. When we moved to our second and current appartment we joined them fully because that was easier for our saving goals and we were planning to get married and join eventually either way. Got married last month :)
I just have some excel sheets that I made myself. We have more detailed sinking funds for everything from car to cats to saving for a kitchen for when we move next year... Also it's less colorful.
Oh my gosh yesss. Thank you for this. My partner and I are moving in together soon and we have been talking about this stuff 😍
Hi Hannah :) My husband and I have a joint credit card and savings account but separate checking accounts, mostly because we were too lazy to switch the direct deposit with our employers. We pretty much treat all the money as "our money" and don't keep track of which account things are being paid out of. Generally we try to put everything on our joint credit card to earn points, and I pay for the credit card out of my account while he pays the rent out of his. We just transfer money to each other if we run low and deposit in the savings when we have extra.
We do use a spreadsheet to keep track of spending but we're lucky and don't worry too much about how much we spend other than just keeping an eye on spending trends to avoid lifestyle inflation. We just try not to eat out too much or shop too much, but it's more of a general feeling than a strict budget.
I love personal finance too and I love to geek out about it. I also have a spreadsheet and I like to do an end of year summary of all my spending with pie charts and bar graphs. Thanks for being open and willing to talk about personal finance!
So I'm really curious, how do you calculate individual equity in case of a split? Is that something you guys discussed? I can imagine it can be a bit unpleasant, but I can't imagine not doing it.
Yeah we discussed this. We basically worked out the % of the deposit I put down when I bought the flat and if we split I get that % back and then the rest of the property is split 50/50 because we’ve both been paying off the mortgage. We had to pay a solicitor to do a Deed of Trust to spell it all out.
@@morehannah I'm so glad you did that! I know so many people who just add someone onto their property after getting married like WE WILL BE TOGETHER FOREVER and then before you know it one is suing the other claiming 50% even though this other person paid in WAYYY more as it was their property first.
Love this! I use a spreadsheet for budgeting, but have recently been using a kakeibo (Japanese money diary) to track my spending. Finding it so helpful to actually write down my spending by hand- it's making me more mindful of my spending, and helping me to spot areas where I spend more than I thought!
Your system is so close to that of me and my fiancé's it's crazy! Both of us love a spreadsheet and glad to hear other couples are similarly as invested in tracking their spending! Genuinely no idea how people manage their finances without it!
My partner and I use YNAB (You Need A Budget) for both of our personal and joint account. You can easily do categories, it will tell you where you're over budget for things, and you can figure out how much you need to put away each month for semi-annual or annual things like road tax or the bins and much more obviously. It is a subscription based service though.
I LOVE YNAB. Omg. Sorry for the all caps haha. Very helpful for setting savings goals and tracking credit card spending!
Love this! We have a joint account and also love our spreadsheets! We’ve always earned different amounts but we put the same amount into the joint account (say 1500) then keep the same amount in our personal accounts as ‘guilt free spending’ (say 100) then whatever is leftover from each of our salaries goes into the emergency fund. It works really well for us. The ‘guilt free spending’ pot is relatively new for us as we found it difficult too working out the boundary between joint and personal spending. We also have an ‘annual bills’ account for exactly the same reason as you! It’s a lifesaver having that tucked away, but we try to pay those bills out of the joint account if we can that month, then the ‘annual bills’ account just keeps growing as a pseudo second emergency fund 👍 I love this and could talk about it all day 😆
Hannah you’re forecasting! I completely love you’re spreadsheet and hope to implement something similar myself - from a happy accountant 😄
Oh my husband and I do the exact same thing. We made a joint account when we started living together after a year. We both contribute 60% of our pay so it’s equitable, and we use that for all of “our” things that we share.
This was so interesting, i love these videos from you, Hannah!
Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet but I love using the app/budget template called YNAB - definitely would recommend it. Super helpful for seeing trends and setting savings goals! Pretty customizable and also helpful for tracking credit card spending
Yess, I love seeing your systems! I tracked my spending for the first two years after I moved out at 18. I've been wanting to get back into the habit, so this is helpful motivation! It feels especially relevant because I'm living with my family again at 24 yo while I work and attend grad school. My dad and I have made the decision to buy an car together because my 27 yo car is dying and my 16 yo sister doesn't have a car at all. I get trade some in value for my car, and my dad pay for the car so I can pay for grad school without loans, and then I'll pay the rest! I know people who struggle to have healthy financial relationships with their parents, and I also think it's so silly that talking about finances is so often seen as taboo. It's so helpful to see this!
Watching this reminded me to update my excel 😂 My approach is slightly different cause I‘m a student just living off of my savings that has to last me two years so I did the math for my fixed costs, and an emergency fund and then divided it by 24 and am mostly trying to track all my spending to make sure I don‘t go over every month, cause I am terrified of being in a different country and suddenly not having any money anymore (that said I am very privileged to even have been able to save up this much money and not need a loan and my parents would absolutely help me out if I needed it, but still, money stresses the hell out of me...)
i work for a big UK bank in debt management and oh my god if everyone was this organised my job would be sooooo much easier😂no but really this is one of the most important things to spend a bit of time and focus on even if it’s not as in depth as Hannah! it’ll save you so much aggro in the long run TRUST me xo
Wow! I lost track of you over the years, I’m so grateful UA-cam just recommended you to me again! 🥺
My bank in the Netherlands has your excels build in in their mobile app.
They recognize your spending and put it in categories so you have a tile for "where is my money going" so you see where money comes in and where it goes to.
And besides that you can in your savings account make little piggy banks for savings and organize savings and set goals and transfer money automatically to those piggy months each month. And it calculates how much you have to set aside each month to reach your deadline on time :)
IT IS AMAZING, my finances gotten so much better since they integrated it.
I myself have Rabobank but more banks in the Netherlands have it.
I would love to see a video on starting your journey of better finance management! I'm currently a student and next year I'm starting in a job where, for the first time ever, I'll know exactly how much I'm earning every month. I'd love to know about what kind of savings goals I should set myself and how I should be managing my money as a young woman. Thanks Hannah 😊😊
This has been super useful so thank you! My baby is 6 weeks old and my husband has finally got a job (starting Monday) after losing his previous one in march, we actually need to sort out finances and savings and baby clothes and formula and nappies and life insurance and and and *hyperventilates.* I need to sit down and do more than my usual notes page on my phone, as for the last 8 months I've just been transferring my husband the money he needs to cover his personal bills and everything else has been covered by me. We haven't had any other money left so that's that
I'm single, so this does not apply to me but it is cool to hear of the way to manage finances when in a relationship. I love hearing about this stuff as I only recently started my personal finance journey not too long ago and still learning a lot of things. This was very entertaining
It's so interesting to see how differently people deal with finances. My husband and I share all of our accounts and money (except for gifts that were specifically given to one of us etc.). When it comes to bigger purchases, we make decisions together. Otherwise, we trust each other to spend within reason. It's been working great for us. :) But obviously, it requires that both partners have similar spending habits, the same financial goals and are willing to share their income... so it may not be for everyone.
I had the same realisation about me and my boyfriend's food shop cost! At first we were like, why the hell are we spending so much more than usually, and then it clicked. It's weird because it feels like we're spending more money, but actually, we're saving - especially on alcohol (a beer at home for 1€ vs. at a bar for 4-5€) 😅 we also have a joint account and calculate what we put into it every month in proportion to our income rather than splitting it 50/50 - it's just the fair thing to do in my opinion, love to hear you talking about it!
I was the organizer too...and the cook...I love to cook :)
I made a 1 year budget at the start of the year (which helps plan for those non monthly things like insurance) and it turned into a real blessing when covid hit since I was able to virtually move money estimates around and see how it would affect me. Each month starts with a budget amount and the discretionary categories get updated with the actual spent amounts each month.
Yessss love this!
I have been saying for years that buying a house is a bigger commitment than getting married. It’s such a big deal.
Also I find it interesting how everyone splits their bills. My husband and I keep our finances semi split. We have a joint account dubbed our Home Fund that we both contribute to equally each month but it’s mainly a savings account that we use for home related expenses and our pet bills. This actually came about because we initially had a roommate when we bought our house and his rent was solely put into our home fund since we didn’t need for covering our normal bills. Saved us when we had our first home related disaster. So when he moved out we just 50/50 split that rent amount and kept contributing to that fund. But the rest of our bills are divvied up based on income and we are individually responsible for paying those. I have more discretionary income since my husband covers our mortgage so I am in charge of all our savings for vacations, emergencies (unrelated to our house), long term savings, etc. I’m definitely a paper planner person, so I have pages in our home planner with the break down of how much all our bills and expenses totaled up to for the last couple of years. It’s been helpful when we need to redivide bills between us. Also gives me a good way to anticipate expense like our energy bill, since I live in the Midwest here in the US and we have drastic temperature changes between the winter and summer months. So I know in the winter my energy bill skyrockets. I too love all things personal finance and organizing money. Although with 2020 being so awful it’s been hard to stay motivated to look at it all.
My husband and I have a joint account but all the bills ended up coming out of my personal account because I could get cashback on them so he just sends some money to me each month. The joint account has become the place that we chuck cheques from grandparents that are written to both of us and where we make small house related purchases like Christmas lights and kitchen wear! And I'm also definitely the one who deals with the spreadsheets and tracking of bills - I've been doing it with my personal account since I was old enough to have control of my own finances so I just added it to my spreadsheet!
I have started many a budget spreadsheet, but until recently every time I did that, all it told me was that my bare minimum spending was greater than my expected income, so I abandoned them. No point in a fancy spreadsheet when you can cover the whole thing with the one rule: do not spend any money that isn't on rent, gas, or food.
Things have improved in the last couple years, though, so maybe I'll try again!
I am always curious what information might come out of tracking the details!
I just want a whole Hannah video on spreadsheets; spreadsheet making, spreadsheet upkeep, a whole spreadsheet extravaganza!
I also love personal finance and have a spreadsheet similar to this! My fiance and I are in the early stages of starting to combine our finances and only recently opened a joint savings. I'm excited for when we finally build out a budget/tracker for the both of us. 🤓🤑 I loved this video and found it super helpful for when that time comes!
My partner is an independent contractor, and I have a more “normal” income. When we bought our house, the bank was like “listen, you’re going to have a much easier time if you just do the mortgage under your name.” Not having a steady income really does make things harder.
Yeah, I've tracked my monthly spendings for years, probably since I got monthly money from my parents as a teenager. I love seeing the saved sum increase, perhaps a bit too much, so I have to actively remind myself that it's ok to use that money. My spreadsheet is pretty similar to yours. I also have a "health" category, to track my spendings on medication/hospital visitis/therapist etc. I also, for some reason, like to track the amount of clothes I buy in a year. I have a whole page just to track the clothes and it fascinates me how it differs from year to year. Like in the beginning of this tracking, I bought lots of hoodies, then some year later I fancied jeans, the next year was dresses etc. Numbers are real fun!
We do things in a very similar way! We have a joint account and we each have personal accounts, and all three have checking and savings accounts attached. Our paychecks are deposited into our personal accounts and then we've agreed to put a percentage of our income into the joint account, making sure that it covers all of our joint expenses, plus some extra to save. We could both stand to be better at spreadsheets and this is kinda inspiring me to make one... but it's worked out well enough so far. 😆
I've been Tracking my spendings very similar to you since 2017!
And when me and my Boyfriend moved in together Last year, i integrated him Into my spreadsheet. Since we dont have a shared Account, my spreadsheet is basically where we Split our expenses. I also Analyse in that where we buy our food, conventional or organic store, and then we can directly See how much organic food we can afford. I get so geeky about it, i Love to Analyse the Data :D
When Not having a Joint Account I think its easier to Talk about what expenses we Share, since its Just a question of putting that in the spreadsheet or not, you dont have to decide when buying which card to use. In our case there is one column which decides who payed, If he did, I did, or which one for both. One Line then Always tells you who has been buying more or less recently. And in the Last year we have never had to exchange Money, since its Always comes out to be equal. Love IT!
My husband and I started out with a joint account, but it morphed into each of us just taking on the expenses that fit our income and having separate accounts. For instance, he pays our house payment and anything associated with his expensive hobbies. I pay for utilities, groceries, and miscellaneous items. Whatever is left over after paying bills and contributing to savings is ours to spend. It helps in all methods if both people are responsible with money, of course.
Love finance chat! Definitely here for this
My partner and I are both super into spreadsheets, so we already had separate systems that we each like! But we do have a joint spreadsheet for joint purchases. And we track who paid for it so that we can even it out over time. (Our incomes are very similar, so we contribute 50-50.)
Great video! My partner and I keep saying we need to do this, sit down and actually go through our finances, but need to get over the mental hurdle of actually starting!
The car thing is interesting. Particularly since myself and my partner have very different views on whether spending on cars is worth the money. We both have cars, I see it as a ‘this is very functional and will get me from a to b’ whereas he sees it as something to enjoy more, has a more expensive car out of his choice. So although we both are named drivers on each, we still don’t jointly pay for the expenses. Otherwise I’d be spending a lot of money on cars which I don’t believe to be necessary or worthwhile.