After I Do: Finances

I'm jumping on the Weddingbee bandwagon, and contributing to the "After I Do" series in my own blogging ways.  Enjoy!

On a scale of 1 to 10, how much stress does money put on your relationship?  Had it changed since the beginning of your marriage?  How do you handle your finances as a couple?  What do you think you could do to improve the way you handle your finances?

I would say we're around a 3 and only because I am the one who stresses out about money.  Marriage hasn't changed our finances too much, except that I stopped working a few months after the wedding.  We had combined our finances when we moved into the house and opened a joint checking account.  All along in our relationship my money was his money, and his money was my money.  Given, I didn't have much, but we were a unit from the beginning.

The no stress part about money comes from our lack of debt, which is amazing for us at our age.  We have paid off our student loans, haven't had a car payment in almost 2 years, and have no credit card debt.  Every month we pay off all of our bills, and we still manage to save too.  We own every single item inside our home, and it feels good to know that everything is paid off.  This is on top of the wedding we paid for back in June, buying H a used car, and getting our roof replaced in August.  We still have the mortgage and a loan ($ from down payment of the house) from H's dad to pay off, but that's "normal."  Let's just say that we are extremely lucky and smart with our money.

The stressful part would come from having only one income.  I'll admit that I didn't actually contribute much to begin with at my old job, but it did allow us to live comfortably (aka save up for a wedding & still be stingy).  The big reason why we can do everything on one income is due to H's job and a raise he received last year.  It helped us immensely, and we are doing just fine.  I am the one who stresses because it comes naturally to me.  I have always been a penny pincher (thanks mom), and it's hard for me to believe that we can really live comfortably with just one income.  Well we've been doing it for the last 7 months, and we are perfectly fine.  Sure, it would be harder if we had a big car payment to make or loans to worry about.  Luckily, we don't.

As an improvement, I would love to put more money into savings.  That's always a given.  With a little Ninja on the way, I want to make sure we have some savings for his future.  It also wouldn't hurt to have retirement money either.  H contributes to his 401k, and every little bit helps.

I know that we are in a good place in our lives financially.  There are many people out there who are suffering in this economy, and we know how fortunate we are.  It takes the two of us to make this work, and so far I can say that we're doing a great job. 

Check out other responses from the famous bees themselves over here!