housing questions
 

let's say you and your gf are getting married...and both parents are giving you
two a new apartment as a gift (so you will end up having two places). Both
apartments are awfully close and similar in size, so you need to decide where to
live without offending the parents.

1) if you live at your place and rent the other one out, 1/2 of the rent will go to
your mother-in-law and 1/2 will go to your wife.

2) if living at your wife's place...the rent will cover the expenses and your
mother-in-law will have the key. You, as a male and owner of the place,
probably need to pay some money to shut your parents and mother-in-law up.

*note* you and your gf both have a job.

Wait..so both apartments are bought already?
If not why don't the parents just split half half and buy one apartment..

tell them to just give you cash so you can put the money into a high interest savings account, then when the time is right, you guys can buy your first house together.

^ some people prefer using their own money to buy their first property.

yup, they bought them already, no mortgage. All you need to do is to move in
and pay the bills. You know some parents want their kids to have the basics
when they are get married, so they don't have to worry too much financially.

Real estate these days is way above an average person can afford, I guess
there's nothing wrong saving up until one day it comes back down again. #1 is
more logical to me.

i say move into your place and just give up the rent to your mother in law and wife
your wife most likely will save that money she gets from the rent for you and her anyways. plus, it's YOUR place and you won't have to fear your MIL walking in on your own time at home with your wife

Move into your own place.

You should have a joint account with your wife with all your and her money inside, so you end up getting half the rent while the other half goes to the in-laws.

#1

I'd rent out the other one.

If anything, discuss with wife/inlaws with lightly furnishing it and renting it out for the olympics.

A friend of mine and I are prepping his place for that right now. Just basically spending about 1K on ikea shit, then renting it out for the 3 weeks during the olumpics while he goes on vacation. should return him about $5,000 profit by the time he comes back.

Also, I'd rent it out anyways just to make some money, then consider selling it when the prices inflate again. it's a good investment while the strata fees and property taxes can be paid with the rent.

but if you rent out the other house..what will your parents think?
Wouldn't it be more fair to split the rent half half between your parents and your mother in law?..or in other words yes your wife would get half of the rent..but I'd use that and pay your own parents

u guys have too much money.
how about donating 1 of the apartments to me?
problem solved

Hold on.

Joint account, yes.

ALL of your money in that joint account, NO.

Ideally, you should each have your own accounts, plus a joint account. Family expenses get paid from joint account. If your partner wants a new handbag, or you want a new set of golf clubs, those get paid for from the respective bank accounts.

either A. sell both and buy one bigger nicer place.

or 2. rent one and keep all the money for you 2. why would you give money back to the parents? they aready gave you the place, it's yours.

or 3. sell one, buy 2 new cars, truck, boat , motocyle etc.

This man speaks the truth. You said what I wanted to say. :thumbsup:

yup. or a percentage of each persons paycheque goes in. this works better than a set amount like say a 1500/month. as a percentage it eliminates any pay differences of each contributing partner.

this is one of the big problems when vacation times comes n clients bitch n moan about how one partner never wanted to go to antarctica but has to pay more of their paycheque than the partner to pay for it.

joint account + atleast 2 individual accounts and the joint account should be percentage based = less troubles

If you don't trust your woman, then don't even marry her or have any joint account.

This isn't just about trust. Personally, I like having an account that I have 100% control over. Humans enjoy that sense of ownership, don't they? Also, if I want to buy her a gift, I'm gonna use money from my account.

Finances are huge deal in a relationship so you gotta have a plan. This joint + personal account arrangement may not work for everybody, but it's how I've been functioning.

:(I don't think its about trust, more on the line of financial freedom.

It's what I would have done as well, if I have enough money to actually deposit into my own account :(

what? im surprised you didnt say " picture of two apartments or didnt happend, BAN"

^ Or Pictures of the wife....;)

Damn...i am jealous..haha

no way...lol
You don't want your mother-in-law to open the door and walk in while you and your wife are having some fun right?

think of it this way,

if the MIL walks in on them, she will NEVER come unannounced ever again

to me it's not about trust. i would want to reward myself with a nice set of scuba gear when i feel like it cause i hit my bonus (and of course, i'll contribute more to the family fund) or I want to donate more to the SPCA without my wife saying why did i do that when we are in a rough time.

Actually, I take care all of the financial stuff like paying bills, etc... and everything is done out of our joint account (with our salaries deposited to it every month). My fiancee doesn't ask and doesn't even know where the money is going (as it's too much of a headache for her to care) though everything is accounted for if she asks. All she cares about is that we are able to save some money and there will be money in the account when she wants to go shopping and she doesn't really spend that much money doing that either. Hell, I even gave her a 9k CDN limit creditcard so she can rack up some airmiles faster when she goes shopping (and her Octopus card is automatically refilled by the creditcard). She pretty much let me get almost whatever the heck I want, eg: the car, big electronic items, etc, because I am quite conscious with the money.

Finding a person with the same view as you is crucial (eg, someone who would support you to donate more to the SPCA when you wanted to).

^ your fiancee? I thought you and her just met not long ago?
better watch out honger girls...lol