Just curious where do you live ? <| sep |> This is how I keep my finances organized while I ' m in law school , and I plan on doing this for the forseeable future . I ' m not living with my boyfriend , but I use a similar system to OP ' s boyfriend and I write down all my purchases so that I can add more money to my savings . I don ' t like using an app because I ' m vaguely paranoid about losing my phone which I do all the time and the notebook system just works for me . It ' s clearly working for OP ' s boyfriend , who has a larger savings account and excellent credit . I think if the current system of 4060 is working then there is no real reason to change it . Lots of couples break up and combining finances makes it so much messier to figure out . Keeping separate finances is good for you and your boyfriend . It protects both of you in the event of a break up god forbid .