Hey guys, it's Jamie Scrimter here, second wife, stepmom of three and mum of one.

And you're listening to my podcast, where we talk about all things motherhood, stepmotherhood,

and living a kick-ass life. If you're ready for raw and real conversations and are striving

to live your very best life, then you are in the right place. Every week,

I'll provide you with tips and strategies and mindset shifts to inspire you to live your own

version of a kick-ass life. We'll bring you along as I create my own.

Hey guys, on this week's episode of the podcast, we're talking about step family life and finances,

which I'm sure I don't have to tell you is a pretty touchy subject.

Anyways, finances can cause a lot of stress in a first marriage when there isn't any of the

complications of step family dynamics. But then for second

marriages and, you know, second marriages where kids are involved, throw in child support payments

and alimony, financial responsibilities from the first marriage, different opinions on where

funds should be allocated, lawyers bills, the stress of having to divide up your net worth after your first marriage failed.

And while all of that combined, you know that country song that says it would have been cheaper

to keeper, it's kind of the truth. Anyways, guys, finances, like I said, are a huge stressor for

many blended families. In a recent blog post, I shared how we handle finances in our family,

and I'll link it for you below, but basically I shared that we ended up merging everything

from the very beginning. So shortly after I moved in, all of my paychecks started to go into

our joint account and my student loan payments, came out of the same account as like lawyers' bills

and expenses for the kids.

We always really had this like what's mine is yours mentality with money from the beginning.

And honestly, with me buying a lot of stuff for the kids, I ended up just having no money in my

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