I'm Getting Married; Should I Combine Finances With My Fiancé?

On this episode of the Money Confidential podcast, host Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez talks with Erin Lowry, author of the Broke Millennial book series, about navigating joint bank accounts and money conversations as a couple.

By

Morgan Noll

Published on July 25, 2022

money-confidential-combine-finances — Photo: Getty Images

Every Monday on the Money Confidential podcast, host Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez, a nationally recognized money expert, delves into your (confidential) money problems and delivers smart, practical, and completely doable solutions that will help you work toward your ultimate financial goals. This is the place to come for real talk about money—and real solutions that actually work.

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On This Episode

It's one thing to split expenses, but when you get married, what should you combine? What should you keep separate? And beyond the budget, what do your joint financial plans need to include? This week, host Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez gets answers from Erin Lowry, author of the Broke Millennial series, including Broke Millennial Talks Money: Scripts, Stories, and Advice to Navigate Awkward Financial Conversations.

Meet Our Caller

"Felicity" is a 26-year-old listener based in Des Moines, Iowa. She's getting married in October of this year and she and her fiancé are struggling to balance their financial goals and wedding expenses. Felicity and her fiancé both want to move away from relying on credit cards for a majority of their spending, but their avoidant tendencies around money are keeping them from making real progress.

Anonymous Caller "Felicity"

"I think that when I go in to look at my money, the only thing I feel is fear of not having enough. Or shame, which I think plagues us all. Like, 'Why can I not stop spending? Why don't I have enough savings? Why don't I have investments? Everyone else has this figured out; I don't."

—Anonymous Caller "Felicity"

Meet Host Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez

Money confidential podcast - host, Stefanie O'Connell Rodriguez — Caroline White Photography

Stefanie is a nationally recognized personal finance expert ready to talk work, worth, and money with unapologetically ambitious women. Her work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, and Oprah Magazine, and Stefanie has appeared on ABC World News, CBSN, Fox & Friends, Fox Business, Bloomberg, The Dr. Oz Show, The Doctors, and more to share her smart, practical solutions to any money problem.

Meet Our Expert, Erin Lowry

CreativeLive and Casey Cosley

Erin Lowry is a personal finance expert and author of the Broke Millennial book series. Through Lowry's website, books, presentations, and courses, she helps millennials navigate important money questions and get their financial lives together.

Advice From the Episode

Erin Lowry

"One of my favorite ways to inititiate conversation [about finances] is: What is your first memory of money? And that gives you so much insight, the way somebody's going to answer that question."

—Erin Lowry

Talk to a financial therapist. If you are having difficulty having productive conversations around money with your partner, a financial therapist of planner can help you work through it. —Erin
"It is really important to have conversations back and forth about what feels good to us, what feels right to us about how to handle money." —Erin
Each month, set aside "fun money" in separate accounts for you and your partner to use however you want, without judgement. —Erin

Stefanie O'Connell Rodriquez

"One of the things that I do to stay excited about my money is I try to give myself reminders of what it is I'm working for, whether that's a house, or a trip, or a wedding. It could be a picture on my fridge, it could be the desktop background."

—Stefanie O'Connell Rodriquez

Links and Resources

Download the transcript for this episode.

Follow Erin on Instagram.
Visit brokemillennial.com.

Have a money issue you'd like to share on a future episode? Fill out our intake form.

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