It's coming up to the anniversary of my buying a house (huzzah!)
Unfortunately, the circumstances around that were, shall we say, less than ideal.
I bought it alone. It was not how I'd imagined it happening.
(Longtime readers know some of the back story here. If you're a bit of a voyeur, click here to sign up for my new monthly newsletter - the first edition goes out this weekend. It'll be all exclusive content: opening up more details about my financial journey (beyond what's here on the blog), the ups and downs, plus my picks of the very best curated reads on money from around the web.)
So, the past year has been a journey.
We've revisited goals and aspirations and worked towards creating a new system for the day to day.
We have in the past totally pooled money, and dipped in and out of having some separation of money over time. Right now is possibly the most separate our finances have ever been, and it's working out better.
That means from my end: handing over some things, learning to trust. Starting small.
That means from his end: taking ownership of those things, and pride in doing so.
The problem with us pooling money so young and so early on, and me (being the savvy and more control freak type, taking charge of handling it all) was he didn't really understand - the way that I did - what it takes to run the finances. The time and energy that goes into managing money. How much life actually costs. As I grew my income and thus our overall household income, it was even easier to disengage and coast, and in the end get a free ride for some of it. Result: I wound up making way too many financial sacrifices.
This way he has skin in the game - responsibility for certain things (whether it's saving for a new fence or cash flowing pet related stuff) getting hands-on with them and owning those numbers.
Even letting go of little things has been terrifying for me. I'm glad it's proven to have been the right move, though. I've been pleasantly surprised by the results.
