more integrations, it's real

Oh, guys. Today FG and I got a joint bank account. 

Let's back up. This morning at 5am I woke up with a terrible headache. I can't take pain meds without food in my stomach and it was too early to eat, so I heated up my rice pack and put it on my face and went back to sleep. 4 hours later, I woke up again, still with a headache. 

I got up, prepared to make myself a cup of coffee and breakfast so I could take some medicine, but FG had saved me some breakfast and had a hot cup of coffee waiting. He had also fed Pumpkin and made sure she had fresh water. 

It's so hard to do anything with one of these headaches, and I was SO grateful for his considerations. It wasn't how I wanted to spend my day off, but I spent most of the day in bed waiting for the pain to go away. It didn't go away until it rained at about 3pm, while we were at the bank. 

Oh yes, the bank. 

We got a joint checking and savings account so that we could easily pay shared bills. He pays his mortgage and taxes separately, so the savings account is for the tax payment each year. Since I'm a new customer at this particular bank, I was able to take advantage of a promotion that gives you $500 if you meet certain criteria. You bet I'm going to meet that criteria. 

So the plan is to pay bills from this joint account, and keep the rest of our money in our personal accounts and I'm pretty okay with that, but it did make me slightly uneasy to open up a joint account. It's just so... committed. I'm direct depositing a big chunk of my paycheck into a joint bank account that another person can access. I trust FG and I am onboard with the system, so I'm not sure why that gives me anxiety. Still processing that.

The other thing I need to figure out is what rights I have. My name is nowhere on the mortgage or any of the bills, and while I'm paying half of his mortgage he gets all the equity. Is there such a thing as a prenup for moving in together? I have to figure that out. I'm not just going to essentially be paying him rent. If I'm putting money into this house I'm getting something back, just in case this doesn't work out. Plus we are going to have to draw up wills just in case something happens to either of us.

So many things to consider.