Welcome to That Home Loan Hub, your ultimate guide to mastering the world of home loans and property. I'm Zebunisso Alimova, here to simplify the complexities of real estate and provide you with expert insights and the latest trends.
Whether you're a first-time homebuyer, an experienced investor, or simply curious about the property market, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we unlock the secrets to property success and help you make informed decisions. Let's dive into the world of property together!
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Thinking about merging money with your partner but not sure where to start? We dive straight into the messy middle: trust, spending habits, and the moment when shared goals like a first home or kids make joint systems not just helpful but essential. With Jordan’s candid stories from real relationships, we unpack what works, what breaks, and how to build a simple system that feels fair to both of you.
We begin with the “test account” idea—one joint account used only for bills—to see how each partner handles responsibility, timing, and priorities. If that money keeps drifting to coffees and impulse buys, you’ve flagged a training need, not a green light. Once trust is proven, we layer in a joint savings account aimed at clear targets like holidays, a car upgrade, or a house deposit. We talk through contribution options—proportional by income or straight 50/50—and why equity beats rigid equality when pay differs.
Autonomy matters, too. After bills and shared savings, personal accounts give breathing room and cut down on petty arguments. We cover the home-buying reality check: hidden debts derail pre-approval, and couples who haven’t agreed who pays for what often stall when the big numbers land. Communication and monthly money check-ins prevent cold feet and keep momentum. Finally, we explore life shifts—parental leave, daycare costs, and who stays home—and how to rebalance contributions so both income and unpaid care are valued.
You’ll leave with a practical framework: start small, test responsibly, expand to shared goals, and keep personal freedom. Ready to try the system or refine your own? Follow the show, share this with a partner, and drop your money rules in a review—we’d love to hear what’s worked for you.
If you were wondering whether you should join your accounts with your partner, here's the episode for you, part three, because I've done two other episodes, one was counch, one was James. And now
I've got Jordan in a hot set, our younger generation, and his thoughts. Hello, Jordan.
SPEAKER_00
Let's go.
SPEAKER_01
So I ask someone almost in their 50s. That's James. Hopefully he's not listening to this. Someone in their 40s, that's Counch, and she's not 40 yet. And now you're in your 30s. So I'm gathering people's thoughts. What do you reckon? At what point should people even join their accounts or whether they should at all?
SPEAKER_00
I mean, a little bit of experience in this area. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. Um, but uh it really depends, I guess, what you
want to do, what stage of the relationship you're in, I would say. Um, obviously I doubt a join account's very good for someone you've just met, you know. You've got to figure out who that person is and so on and so forth, you know. That's yeah, but I mean, if you're you're married, like you've got kids, you've got property, you know, like you'll your life's intertwined, man. Like it's really like you're together for life, really, in my eyes, anyway. But so you should be sharing finances. Like, I I don't believe in keeping things from your partner and whatnot. So it yeah.
SPEAKER_01
What if uh the other person is an absolute spender and you're the earner?
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, well, maybe that's some everything you earn the other person spends. Yeah, so I've been there. Yeah, so uh let's say like one of my previous relationships, I had a joint account, and I usually use that
as a test, to be honest. Like it was like I'd always paid the bills, like I was the higher income earner for the household, you know, like I just had more experience in the area as well, I think. And then we made a joint account, like to and I used that to show her how to how to pay bills and like treat like teach in a way, some financial kind of you know, for like financial literacy is what we call it. And she well failed the test, but but um I mean I think it did teach her quite a lot at the same time. It's just you could obviously see that instead of going on bills, it was coffees and food and random things from Kmart and whatnot. And and from there, I mean, it's you're not really gonna go further with that. Like you're I think the next stage on from that is once you're both comfortable, you both know that you're you're pretty good with money and you're not hiding things from each other or just spending willy-nilly, then you can look at possibly having another joint account or a savings account together where you both like you're both on the same page, like you're both saving for the same thing, you know, you've got both got the same goals in life.
SPEAKER_01
I was about to say common goals with probably being bored.
SPEAKER_00
I think like as in relationships, it's you you talk about that in general anyway. If you're in a long-term relationship, I would assume you've you've got similar goals or where you want to be, you both have a lifestyle you want to achieve. Holidays, etc., is the common one, isn't it? Holidays, new cars, or which is what people save towards. But yeah, if you can't get past the first one, I think the first one's a good test, good test. If you can't get past that, then
uh I I don't know, it's a bit hard. And we see that with even people coming in to buy their first properties and stuff, like people hiding debts as well. And you know, I think sometimes that can be uh a very good teaching tool. A teaching tool. Teaching tool, though, where you pay phone sometimes, but okay, interesting thoughts.
SPEAKER_01
So so you're a firm believer that if you're in a serious relationship, you're gonna have kids together eventually, you want to buy a property, you should really have joint accounts. What about still having separate accounts for your own project?
SPEAKER_00
I I think you should still have personally, I still feel like you should have separate accounts, you know. Like you have your own money, like that's what you earn in a way. Like you both like I've I've top a couple of different ways like paying bills, like you can do it on a percentage, like let's say I earn 70% of the income of the household, she earns 30. So I put in 70% of the bills to that joint account and stuff, and everything else is my own, you know, or we have that like next stage, like I was saying, you have a savings account, you both put in 50-50 for that. I feel, you know, or you can do 50-50 for bills, it depends how you both feel about it.
What you guys choose, like can't tell you how to live your life, but that's just how we how I do it. But yeah, 50-50 for savings for that goes towards like holidays you want, or or just just those goals that you have. But the rest of the money I feel like is it's yours, you know. You've you worked for it, you earned you earned it, you know, like you can use that money however you feel, and I don't think you need to directly see what your other partner has. I don't think, personally. Okay. It's um, you know, like if the bills are being paid, like the you're moving towards the goal of your like you're both working towards, then I think that's a very you know, if I I I don't yeah. If you've got something like let's say your partner turns around, like, oh it'd be really good to get this and stuff, it's your choice to turn around and be like, oh, actually I've I've got the money for that. Shall we do it? You know, that that's up to you then, you know, like you worked hard for that. So from my perspective, should I say.
SPEAKER_01
I love it. I love it. Now that's really good to hear because I think a lot of the time when we're trying to help clients and if they don't have it figured out yet between them of where they're heading, it's really hard to help them to get to that point. And often you would see that, you know, they might start a pre-approval and then they might not go ahead further because one might get cold feet of you know, being scared of the bigger
bills, or if they haven't sorted out between themselves who's gonna pay for what, then that will stall the process. So often it's really important to talk to the couples, especially if they're coming to buy their first home, they've been together for only a year or two. How is it gonna look like once they move in? Because flatting is one thing, you know, when you're just flating. That's one is one thing. But when you're actually jointly responsible for something big as a mortgage, communication is the key. Okay and planning is the key. Especially like you're a guy, you're gonna get a woman, and she might have a child, she might be the one. She might take the time off work.
Yeah, how does that look? It uh to me that depends on I I think the smarter way of looking at it is who's the higher income earner, who has the time for it kind of thing. I would quite happily stay at home with my kids, you know, and chill out and take up those tests if if my partner was earning more and whatnot, if that was, you know, if that was why I'd still like to work myself, you know, as I've I've had a partner in the past who's exactly wanted to work part-time as well, and that's perfectly fine, you know, as long as we're making them enough money for the daycare and and fair like we're both putting in at home, you know, it's okay.
SPEAKER_01
Brilliant. Jordan, thank you so much for your thoughts. For those that have ideas of what we should cover next, please feel free to reach out to us. We are here for you. And for those that don't know about Jordan, go back and have a look at the
