Mike Randel, an accountant with
Schiff & Weiss of Farmington Hills,
said the vast majority of young cou-
ples follow this simple formula: joint
savings and checking accounts, joint
tax returns and a joint investment
portfolio.
But that strategy is for married
couples only. If you're merely living
together, it's best not to marry off
your money.
"Until you're married, keep every-
thing really separate," said Myndi
Grauer, 24, who lives with her
boyfriend and splits expenses with
him 50-50. "And don't get joint cred-
it cards. You can't just assume you'll
get married to that person."
Paul and Nicole Shapira still keep
one separate account each — leftover
from before they were married — but
now apply the all-for-one and one-
for-all theory.
'Although she's got her account
and I've got mine, I look at it as joint
money," said 29-year-old Paul. "If I
lose $10,000 from that account,
that's still going to affect her."
Going with the joint system helps
to avoid basic money squabbles.
Randel says most monetary problems
crop up in young marriages when the
investment portfolio goes sour.
"Lots of times only one of the two
in a couple is interested [in knowing
the details of investments]," he
explained. "What happens then is
that person will invest in something,
and a year later it will have lost
money. And that's when the other
person shows up asking tough ques-
tions."
To avoid such problems, Randel
suggests leaving your money in the
hands of a financial planner.
As a financial planner, Cohen
agrees. "If you're working with finan-
cial planners, the tendency to back-
fire is a lot less, because they're doing
this every day and they're up on
changes and new things going on."
She advises her clients to make
specific goals when investing their
money. If you want to buy a house,
she recommends conservative, short-
term investments that won't risk what
you've saved for a down payment.
But if a future college fund is on
your mind, Cohen has more time to
go after high-return mutual funds
that could land you in the penthouse
— or the poorhouse.
Either way, she says, the biggest
mistake you can make is going too
conservative and keeping your money
in low-interest savings accounts.
"A lot of people are putting their
money where their parents have their
money — in the bank," she says.
"Just get it out of the bank. It's not
doing any good there."
She recommends keeping no more
than three-to-six months of living
expenses in the bank.
Both Randel and Cohen tell their
clients not to zero in on any single
financial priority. "Diversity" is
today's financial buzzword.
"Different people have different
goals and needs," Cohen said. "I tell
people that you have to strike a bal-
ance between saving for the future
and having fun today."
An important part of that financial
balance is making sure you are con-
siderate of your partner when you
spend money. It's harder to go to the
mall now because you have to consid-
er someone else before losing control
at Best Buy.
"When you meet with the rabbi
before you get married, he'll scare
you with stories about the fact that
you've got to consider the other per-
son when you're buying something,"
said Renee Weiss, 27, who has been
married for a year.
She and her husband, Jason, just
bought a house in West Bloomfield.
Although most of their cash flows in
that direction, they still make month-
ly contributions to their investment
portfolio.
Jason, 27, said organizing money
makes all the difference. By making
investment contributions via "direct
deposit" from their paychecks, the
Weisses don't even have a chance to
frivolously spend that money.
"It's not like I'm buying stocks and
bonds and CDs every day," Jason
said. "But we put our future first,
before we go out to dinner."
Getting organized isn't hard, says
ege
h soon
Randel — even for those non-mone-
tary types.
"The best thing that people can do
is write down your net worth on a
piece of paper," he advises. "If you
can trace all your assets so you know
what you have, then you know what
you can spend."
Paul Shapira says that the "chal-
lenge is to live within our budget. We
have ups and downs all the time."
Knowing what you can and cannot
spend won't necessarily make things
easier to swallow — especially if that
number is depressingly small. Cohen
warns her clients to expect some
rocky times. But if you can save all
your marital conflict for pocketbook
problems, she said, you're on the
right track.
"If you've got a good, workable
relationship," she said, "money
should be the only thing you fight
about."
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