Choose an account model together and set up the first transfers.
Couples often stall at the setup stage. They have a sketch of how their money should move and good intentions, but the setup means sitting together with two phones and four banking apps, and that is easy to put off for weeks. The way through is to do it all in one sitting, which takes about half an hour.
Aim to get up from the table with four things done: one account model chosen, with a one-sentence reason; every account labelled keep, open or close; at least one standing transfer running into the shared account, or the fully separate equivalent; and a review date that both of you can see in your calendars.
Before you sit down, bring both phones, your payday flow drawing from lesson 2.3, and the answers you collected from your bank for lesson 2.2.
You have three models to choose from: fully joint, fully separate and hybrid. Lesson 2.1 set out the trade-offs, and each of you wrote something down there. Read both sets of notes and pick one model together.
Then write one sentence saying why. Base it on your own situation. What is normal for other couples does not belong in it. When you come back to review the setup, this sentence reminds you what problem you were solving, so it is worth getting right. A couple choosing hybrid might write that their incomes are far apart and both want money they do not have to explain. A couple choosing fully joint might write that one partner plans to stop work within a year and they do not want money to change hands when that happens. A couple choosing fully separate "for now" might write that one partner is still clearing a debt and they will look again after it is paid.
Go through every account each of you holds and give it one of three labels. Keep means the account has a job in the new model. Open means you need an account you do not have yet, usually a joint one. Close means the account has no job and is just one more balance to watch.
Before you open anything, check the terms. Look at minimum balance fees, at whether the account earns bonus interest and what conditions apply, and at the signing instruction, using your answers from lesson 2.2.
Rename each account in your apps after its job so the purpose shows every time you log in. Names like Shared, Flat fund, Daniel personal and Hui Min personal work. Close an account only after any GIRO or salary crediting has moved off it, or a bill will bounce.
The transfer that matters most is usually each partner's contribution into the shared account. Set it up now as a recurring monthly instruction, using the contribution amount from your drawing, and date it a day or two after the later of your two salaries arrives. If you think the amounts will change after module 3, set up a starting amount anyway, since changing an existing instruction later takes a minute.
Check the account number on screen twice before you confirm. Once each instruction is saved, take a screenshot of it.
If you chose fully separate, you have two options instead. You can set up an agreed monthly transfer between your personal accounts to settle shared bills, or you can agree a standing arrangement for who pays which bill.
Choose a date three months away and put it in both calendars with the note "Review account model". Three months covers a few paydays, including a month with a surprise cost, and still leaves time to fix a design that is not working before it causes resentment. At the review, ask each other three questions:
Did every transfer run? Did either of us feel short, or feel we had to ask permission? Is there a bill nobody was paying?
Hui Min and Daniel, the couple from earlier lessons, sat down on a Sunday afternoon and wrote their sentence: hybrid, because their incomes are far apart, Daniel's commission varies, and they each support their own parents.
Then they labelled their accounts. Daniel kept his salary account because it earns bonus interest on his salary, and kept his old savings account as his emergency money. He closed a dormant account he had opened for a promotion years ago. Hui Min kept her salary account and her savings account. Together they opened a joint account with an "either to sign" instruction and named it Shared, and inside Shared they created a pot called Flat fund for their BTO savings.
Each of them set up a standing transfer of S$1,500 (an example figure, and the placeholder amount from lesson 2.3) to Shared on the 2nd of the month (an example date). Over the following two weeks, rent, utilities and the internet bill moved to Shared by GIRO and standing instruction. They saved their two screenshots in a folder called Household and put a reminder three months out in both calendars, titled "Review account model: Shared and Flat fund".
Open your banking apps side by side, with your drawing between them, and start with the sentence.
Agree on your model, set up one standing transfer, and put the review date in both your calendars.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).