My fiancé and I live on half of our income so we can pay off $75,000 in student loans and still save for retirement. Here’s what a typical week looks like.

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Believe it or not, even after we decided to be honest about our money, we still kept our finances separate. We had total transparency, set couple money goals together, and equalized our bills according to income.

In March of 2019, my partner proposed (I said yes!) and we decided it was time to combine our finances 100%. The process was much easier than our first money talks since we had worked to change our mindsets about money together.

Setting a budget together was even more essential for another reason — my partner and I both increased our incomes this year. I started earning about 25% more when I switched careers and his income doubled due to a role change from engineer to real time operations.

I’m now a freelance writer and designer, so my income can fluctuate. My partner brings home $8,500 a month and I average $3,000 a month.

Right now the goal is to pay off the $74,000 of student loans I have left. If I bring in more income one month, we put that towards my student loans, but we have put this on hold before when we needed to meet savings goals, such as our wedding fund. We also have a category for savings goals where a huge chunk of our money, about $3,000, goes each month. We put about $1,800 toward investments.

Our budget is on a shared Google spreadsheet and we track all of our expenses with Mint. The budget gives a job to every dollar that comes in each month. We don’t have a joint checking account. Instead, our credit union allows us to link our accounts for instant transfers.

We each have our own retirement accounts — my partner has a 401(k) and I have a traditional IRA — and high-yield savings accounts. Even though these will be legally shared when we get married, it’s important for me as a woman to have the same representation in investments and savings as my partner.