[speaker001:] so Cathy um do you keep a monthly budget
[speaker002:] well we we do of sorts it's not a it's not a family budget both my my husband and I work and what we do is basically treat each income as separate uh partly we didn't want to fall into the trap of arguing over the family money oh yeah well you know I earned this much and therefore I have the right to spend that and well you know you overspent the the total budget this way each of us knows what's in our own bank accounts
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so you can if you want to write a check for somebody's birthday present you don't have to worry about the other person seeing it that sort of thing but uh what's unique is that uh my husband keeps a spreadsheet of uh the income and he submits a bill to me every month an itemized bill and I pay that
[speaker001:] wow
[speaker002:] and then so he has track of both of our expenses I pay part of the utilities he pays part of the utilities it takes a little bit more work but it does work for us I mean it it really does work very successfully for us
[speaker001:] hum do you have any kids
[speaker002:] yes I'm I am juggling one right now on my lap uh we have a uh almost one he he'll be one on on April second you can hear him and the one is four and he's off taking a bath so uh yeah we've got two kids and uh
[speaker001:] well I can hear him right there so how does that work into your budget
[speaker002:] uh well what
[speaker001:] as far as planning for expenses and so forth
[speaker002:] well in terms of of immediate expenses like clothing um I purchase those out of my income and I get reimbursed fifty percent of that by my husband so again I submit bills to him receipts to him uh for the day care uh what we do is actually take that directly out of my income um and my my company has a uh a pretax medical deduction uh medical and uh child care uh all together so um that that helps for for that planning
[speaker001:] hum until they you wouldn't happen to work for Liberty Mutual would you
[speaker002:] excuse me no no no a a biotech company as a matter of fact
[speaker001:] Liberty Mutual okay that that's my company and that's exactly what we have
[speaker002:] yeah and it it works out it works out really well now in terms of long term like college expenses uh right now we don't have something that's set up that's labeled college we have uh more along the lines of um uh sort of investment plans in each of the children's names
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] and they were set up as as first birthday presents or or or even newborn presents from the grandparents just the the actually assembled and set up uh all the investment decisions are are now ours but in terms of retirement that's the one area that that is is still a little sticky because you you you sort of have your retirement plans through your companies and we spent so much time trying to to make sure that the boys are okay that and you know for our own retirement there's not a whole lot actually organized but we do have uh the things through our companies so that's that's a start anyway
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah this is uh the first year that actually the first month that I've actually instituted a budget uh for my wife and I
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] for the previous nine years or so we've just pretty much let it slide um there really wasn't much problem as far as income versus expenses uh things are getting a little bit tighter uh we bought a house last year we bought a new vehicle things that which weren't a problem before have have all sudden noticed our cash flow is starting to decline a little bit
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] you know with all the monthly bills and uh uh so far it's working out pretty well you know we're keeping an eye on what we spend each week but like I said being one of the first months we really won't know for a few more months down the road how well we're doing
[speaker002:] um
[speaker001:] but your plan where you you submit bills that's the most itemized plan I've ever seen or heard anyone talk about as far as married couples
[speaker002:] yeah well it's not it's not actually too bad once you get the spreadsheet the spreadsheet set out by my husband has categories for things like utilities uh you know other expenses
[speaker001:] interesting
[speaker002:] uh the rent and my contribution I don't make as much financially as he does
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so my contribution is prorated it doesn't come it doesn't come fifty percent out of my pocket when I don't make fifty percent of the income uh you know which is nice it's fair
[speaker001:] fair enough
[speaker002:] uh so actually what it what happens is that we gather all the bills and then write them down and then uh well uh after that it's just a question of putting them into the computer and the computer generates you know I mean it it takes the percentage that's necessary and he prints out a bill and I write a check and that's it um once it's set up it works it works reasonable well so it it most of my friends though when they find out about it they they they think your husband submits a bill to you that's that's that's weird that's really weird but we don't I mean I