Love and money

When moving in together, the important practicality of joint finances is best discussed early on to ensure a smooth transition. Here, Jo and Paul Leon share their story. By Kate de Brito.

“Before we got the card, we took turns to pay for dinners and things,“ says Jo. “You just knew when it was your shout and when it wasn‘t. But, eventually, it became easier to put it on a shared credit card.”

When Jo, 31, and her boyfriend, Paul, 35, moved in together on Valentine’s Day a few years ago, they celebrated with oysters, prawns and Champagne near their new harbourside apartment.

“We were tired from the move, but we were also excited to be living with each other,” recalls Jo, an account manager for an advertising agency.

After several years running the gauntlet of flatmates and shared houses, moving in seemed the next logical step. “I was not really enjoying myself where I was living,” says Paul. “Jo and I had been together for about a year and we were spending so much time with each other it made sense to move into our own place.”

Before beginning the search for the perfect love nest, Jo and Paul sat down to work out how they would handle money matters. Both had individual savings accounts and credit cards, and agreed it was smart to keep their money separate – at least for the time being.

They had enough experience in shared households to want a system of splitting bills and rent that was simple and trouble-free. Neither wanted the hassle of collecting money each week for a household kitty or sole responsibility for arranging rental payments.

Paul, an accountant, had a larger income than Jo, but both agreed it was fair to split expenses evenly. “Our relationship is equal, so we wanted to do everything fifty-fifty. Also, the pay difference wasn’t that huge,” says Jo.

To begin with, they discussed how much they could afford to spend a week on rent without overstretching their budget. A sunny two-bedroom Art Deco apartment in Sydney’s Lavender Bay turned out to be the ideal abode, but Jo admits she wound up paying slightly more than she’d planned. “But I was very happy as the place was perfect for us,” she says.

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