BOISE, IDAHO — When we're young, many of us are taught that when we grow up, we'll fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. But when we actually grow up, we usually realize it's not that easy. Putting aside your obvious reasons marriage-worthy factors like mutual attraction, shared interests, or at least one of the couple being a really good cook, getting on the same page with finances is huge for a good relationship. In this week's Financial Fitness, Matt Sizemore talked with two married couples who view finances very differently, but still make it work!
Sierra Saletta and Mark Gardner have been married for eleven years. They elected before marriage to keep their finances separate.
"We've literally never had a fight about money ever," said Sierra Saletta and Mark Gardner.
Talia Garreffa-Truckenbrod and Mike Truckenbrod are newlyweds, but have been together for about a decade. They've gone a different route and share the majority of their finances in a joint account.
"Yeah, we've never had a fight about it, no!" said Talia Garreffa-Truckenbrod and Mike Truckenbrod.
With no controversy in sight, I had to find out how they came to these important decisions.
"Money tends to be a point of contention for most couples and we really didn't want that, and so we kind of made a joint decision that we were going to keep all of our finances separate and just see how that worked for us. And, you know, almost 11 years later, it's still working very well," said Saletta.
"We've always just viewed it as a team effort and that was something that I had like, definitely come to terms with that. He was so willing to help me that I was like, oh, I don't want to feel like I'm indebted to you and he was like, that's not how I view it at all, you know? And so eventually I came to that and I was like, ok, we're just a team and that's how this works," said Garaffa-Truckenbrod.
But what about paying bills? That's gotta be tricky for at least one of the couples.
"We pay separate bills. We kind of have it divided across the finances on, you know, I pay the mortgage and a couple other utilities and then he pays all the insurance and some of the other utilities and it just, it kind of evens out pretty well," said Saletta.
"More than anything, it really saves us time because we were spending time going back and forth with Venmo and different things like that because of the fact that, you know, with the mortgage, for example, we're both paying towards that and we have a lot of collective goals that we share and it just makes it easier and it works well for us to be able to have that all in one account," said Truckenbrod.
Both couples also have their individual purchases checked off as well.
"We want to still feel like we can buy things we want to buy. Right? Rather than asking for permission when we're talking about major expenses that we might individually want to take on. You know, it's more just a conversation that you just naturally have with, with your best friend," said Talia and Mike.
"If I wanna go buy a new handbag, I don't have to ask permission and vice versa. He wants to go buy a new snowboard, you know, and there's no, there's no issue," said Saletta.
And the big-time, expensive individual purchases? Not much different.
"I'm considering buying a vehicle for my business, and I've been chatting with Mark about that, but ultimately, it's going to be my purchase. So it's not really going to affect him, but I want his input on it," said Saletta.
"We talk about it in a fun way where it's not like, I don't think that you should get that or whatever, it's like brought to the table with an open mind. And just knowing that if we choose to take on a major purchase. That might be something that prevents us from taking out a major purchase later on that we might prioritize higher on the list," said ," said Talia and Mike.
Financial experts at Fidelity Investments say 20 percent of couples claim finances are their greatest challenge so they suggest you be honest about how much money you're pulling in and consider a budget.
But what's really the best way to go? Joint accounts or separating finances? Funny enough, despite their different financial views, both couples came up with the same answer.
"Ultimately it just comes down to what works best for you and your situation and like staying communicative with your partner," said Garaffa-Truckenbrod.
"Do what works for you, Not because that's what everybody in your family does or that's the societal norm, do what works the best for the two of you and everybody else can stay out of it. It's really none of their business anyway," said Saletta.
