You are ready to take the HUGE step of combining your finances but you have zero clue where to start! Don’t worry, I’ve got you!

First up, my biggest piece of advice, be patient with yourself, there are a lot of moving parts when it comes to your finances. You won’t get it all right the first time, but you will get there.

I touched on this last week, the first decision you have to make is will you start a new account and combine everything there, or will you take one of your current accounts and use this as your joint account.

Some things to consider to help you make this decision.

Where are your automated payments right now? Are they mainly coming out of one of your accounts? It could save you time if you use an existing account.

Is it important to you to start fresh, with a new account? A big benefit of starting new is that you will have to make a conscious choice with each payment if it is something you want to move or cancel (like all of those monthly subscriptions).

What are your current bank fees? As you are making this transition, this is a good time to consider how much you are paying and if you can reduce the fees.

Okay, let’s dive into the action steps now!

1. You had to know this was coming, it is time to make a combined budget! You need to do this to see what your big financial picture is together. If you don’t know where to start click HERE to get my free budget template.

2. For all current expenses, include on your budget how this payment is currently happening (manual, automatic from x account or on x credit card). This step will help you decide how you move forward with combining. If you have never worked with a budget before, I recommend going through at least a month of bank and credit card statements to ensure you are capturing all monthly expenses.

3. Decide on how you will combine. New account or one of your current accounts. If it is a current account, take action so that you both have access. If you will be starting a new account, dedicate some time to reviewing where that account will be. Consider no fee online only bank accounts as an option to save you on fees each month.

4. Now it’s time to list all of your income and expenses with the dates of the next transaction. You can do this with pen and paper, in a fancy spreadsheet or even on a calendar if you have one laying around.

5. Use the information you collected in the previous steps to start making your action plan. It’s a delicate balance to ensure there is enough money in each account when automatic payments are scheduled to come out. Consider this when you are moving the deposits for your income. Ideally you’ve got a little bit of a buffer in your accounts so that if one payment doesn’t get moved as expected you’re still okay.

6. As each automatic deposit or withdrawal comes out of the updated account you can cross it off your list so you know it’s taken care of.

7. Once everything has been moved, close any accounts that you planned to so you don’t get charged for an extra month of bank fees.

8. Set any automatic transfers to savings accounts (and/or personal spending accounts) that need to happen as a result of the transition.

9. Ensure that you are both joint on any accounts that were part of the combining.

10. Set a reminder on your phones so that you are making regular money conversations a priority! Be sure to talk about how the combining is working for each of you as part of your money dates!

Happy Combining!!

-Sherry