Getting Started

[NavyLove4Ever]

As a future New Bride, I was wondering how would be the best way to set up our finances? Here's some basic questions.

1. Finishing paying off loans/credit cards- we have little debt, but should we make a payment plan to set up to finish these off so that we can get them out of the way early

2. No wedding debt, except for moving. My parents and his are paying for it.

3. Bank accts. How should we set up? Mine is a local chain, and I want to switch to Navy Federal with him. How should we set it up? Link them, or create a new joint acct?

Thanks!

[Rich Lunsford]

Great questions! Congratulations on your marriage. By focusing now on your finances, you are showing excellent skills that will serve you well in your marriage. Most marital arguments have some roots in finance. As for the debt, you now both have debt. Both of you are affected by it. So, both of you should focus on paying it off as quickly as your budget allows. Having no debt allows a huge sense of financial freedom and lessens worry in the future (a huge benefit in itself). You may consider combining your finances when you marry. Your lives are now joined, why not your checking account? Especially in military life, one spouse may be required to leave for extended periods of time and the other is required to pay the bills, set up the savings and retirement plans and more. Joint accounts make that process a bit easier in a very tough time. Check out the options available at USAA at www.usaa.com.

Keep up the great work and I wish you only the best as you enjoy your new lives together!

Rich Lunsford is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNERTM practitioner with USAA Financial Planning Services, one of the USAA family of companies. Rich holds the Series 7 and 66 securities licenses. Rich also holds the designations of Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC®), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU®), and CHARTERED RETIREMENT PLANNING COUNSELOR (CRPC®).

Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. owns the certification marks CFP® and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ in the United States, which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board's initial and ongoing certification requirements.

[gunsgirl]

I am against joint accounts-

there is no hard and fast rule to joint or seperate- DH is active duty- been deployed been underway and for almost 10 yrs we have successfully maintained seperate accounts- we both each have seperate savings and seperate checkings.
we are joint users so when one of does need to go away the other can write checks from the accounts; the benefits to this: financial independance - you will develop and maintain your financial identity, you can buy presents without the other knowing how you much you spent and where you bought it, you maintain control over your own accounts.
for us we even go so far as seperate the bills- and he pay certian ones and I pay certian ones- we each pay our own credit cards too.

in the whole 9 1/2 yrs we have been married we have never I repeat NEVER fought about money.

[Kitten35]

Good ideas. Us too, we are trying to pay down the credit debt (not much, but still want it gone) before I move to join him at AIT so that we can live on his salary alone while I look for a job. Then we're chopping up the cards. REally, it's not a win-win game. You pay almost double. They win, you lose--always. So def pay those down.

We are going to set up a joint acct at our first duty station and our goal (just talked about this actually) is to have six savings accts (not as crazy as it sounds)--retirement (TSP) thru the Army, one for my fun money, one for his fun money (which we can spend w/o consulting each other), one for car expenses so it doesn't dong your checking acct any time anything goes wrong, and eventually, you can pay cash for a car, and a CD of money collecting interest we got for our wedding, and an 'emergency acct' of three mos living expenses which is to be built up ASAP. Sounds crazy but it's really not hard--just put a predesignated amount into each one each month automatically at your bank. I find if I don't see the money go into my checking acct, I won't even know it's there so it's easy to save.

[gunsgirl]

Kitten it sounds like you have a sound plan:

we have: the TSP, 2 roth IRA's one for him one for me- 5 CD's ( LADDERED), a money market account, 3 personal savings accounts and 2 personal checking accounts. and have bought a piece of land as an investment tool.

BUT one little piece of advice- keep at least one credit card- keep a 0 balance and save it in case of emergencies-

[NavyLove4Ever]

Thanks everyone! I really will be looking into these for when the time comes.