Ready To Move In Together? Are You Sure?

Making the move towards sharing a space with your partner is a big step in any relationship. Things have been going well for a while now, and you both want to see if the whole “living together” thing will work out. You’ve got all your plans set up, ready to take a jump into the real estate market and find a place that the two of you can make your own.

Well, okay, great, but have you really considered everything? Or if you’re doing it for the right reasons? Here are a few suggestions that you may not have considered before taking a flying leap into turning your partnership into a “roommateship” too.

Live together…before you live together.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, this is exactly what you’re trying to do, what terrible advice is this? You’re getting into a place to do exactly this, so why can’t you just do it? Because there are many different ways that a couple can try their hand at this before actually purchasing or renting or moving into the other’s place.

If you both don’t have a place yet and you’re trying to get one together, you can try spending time in an Air B&B, some of which can be rented for up to a month at a time at a discounted rate. This allows you to have a firm out with no co-ownership obligations, and doesn’t come with long-term expectations to continue like most rentals. Or, if one or both of you already own a place, have a temporary trial-run move in before moving in everything. If everything works out, it’s a good sign that permanent move-ins would work.

Money, money, money.

There are a number of bad reasons regarding money to move in with each other. One of which is the reliance on your partner to support you if you feel you are otherwise struggling. This is an excellent way to make your partner feel used and will be a constant point of contention between the two of you if it keeps up for any length of time.

Communication is a big part of your relationship, and if you’re not communicating about how each of you are doing fiscally, or how you would go about splitting costs and planning for shared fiscal responsibility, you definitely aren’t ready to take on a household together. It’s going to have to be that one person takes care of the groceries one day and another person does on a different day, and other shared expenses are important to consider. Develop a monetary strategy before setting one foot in your new place together.

You’re on two completely different tracks.

It’s so important to have a conversation about your life goals and what you both want out of your living space. If you feel pressured, can’t compromise, or argue a lot about many different things, how do you expect that to be different when you’re living under the same roof? It might appear as though you’re on similar wavelengths before you talk about it, but as soon as you broach the subject, it’s possible that there are very different opinions about how basic things should work. These should all be worked out before setting foot in a house.

Now, these are all things that could be negative factors that might cause you to reconsider, but there are many good things that can push you together as well. So long as you do your due-diligence and make sure that both of you understand what you want out of a living arrangement, you should be on the right track towards earning a place together. There is no need to rush into things, take things slow and figure it out.

I promise, you will feel much better about it when the time really comes.