Pod Insights The Psychology of your 20s 350. When should you move in with someone? About this episode It sounds simple. Split the rent, share space, maybe finally stop packing an overnight bag. But living together is one of the biggest relationship transitions of our twenties, and it brings with it some very real psychological, emotional, and even social shifts.
In this episode, we unpack the questions around living with your partner in your 20s - what it means, what it changes, and what it reveals.
We explore:
• The pros and cons of moving in together
• Why living together can feel like forming a ‘chosen family’
• The pressure of societal and family expectations to hit the next milestone
• The hidden dynamics of cohabitation
• Why fairness, communication, and space matter more than perfection
• The five questions to ask yourself before you take the leap
Whether you’re moving in with your partner, thinking about it, or reflecting on a past experience, this episode is for you.
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3:00 Jemma Sbeg? Hello everybody and welcome back to the Psychology of Your Twenties, the podcast where we talk through some of the big life changes and transitions of our twenties and what they mean for our psychology.
3:18 Jemma Sbeg? Hello everybody, welcome back to the show, welcome back to the podcast. New listeners, old listeners, wherever you are in the world, it is so great to have you here back for another episode as we of course break down the psychology of our twenties. This is a topic that has been a long time coming, but I've been kind of like holding off on doing it until I had some actual lived experience on the matter. And now that I can definitely say that I do, I want to talk about what it's like living with your partner in your twenties and whether or not you should do it. So I have been with my partner, Tom, now for three years. I feel like you guys have been here
4:00 Jemma Sbeg? for the entire life cycle of our relationship from like when I was on my dating detox to when I met him afterwards. And what you may or may not know is that we did kind of like, we had like a medium distance relationship for some time where I live in Sydney, he lives in Wollongong. It's kind of like an hour and a half, two hour drive, not really long distance, not particularly like easy to pop over and see each other. And about a year in, he basically decided like, okay, I'm going to move to Sydney so that we can be closer. And we had this huge discussion of, do we move in with each other? Do we move in with each other after really only being together
4:39 Jemma Sbeg? for like a year? And we decided not to. And I will say this, that was one of the best decisions that we made. For our relationship. I honestly think it is like one of the reasons we are so solid today because we didn't put out, put the pedal to the metal in our relationship and we really took our time to kind of go through all the milestones of being in a relationship and being with somebody. And six months ago, we finally decided like, okay, no, now is the time. We've been together for like two and a half years. Let's move in together. And we kind of did it on our own terms. And there was a lot of times when we were like, this would be really convenient. We basically already see each other every day anyways.
5:22 Jemma Sbeg? And we didn't do it. And I think that how we went about it has really taught me a lot. And how we now live together has taught me a lot about the pros and cons of living with your partner in your twenties. I will say it is amazing. It is objectively so much fun and like, just has made my life so much better. But there are definitely things to think about when you make this, make this decision. Like, you are basically guaranteeing that either you end up together long term, you end up married, or any breakup is going to be like twenty times more painful. And there is definitely an urge when you were
6:03 Jemma Sbeg? in the early stages of a relationship to want to build the life together without actually really knowing who you're dating yet, whilst you're still kind of in the honeymoon period. And I had really worn against that. And I'm going to explain exactly why, why it's sometimes really, really important to wait, what you need to know about your partner before you sign a lease together, before they move into your house, and some of like the biggest hurdles that you will unfortunately and uncomfortably come across when you live with, when you live with the person that you love more than anything else in the world. So very excited to get into this, to of course, break down the psychology of this dynamic, to give you some, I guess, unsolicited advice, but you're listening to this episode, so
6:48 Jemma Sbeg? it's solicited, I'm assuming. Without further ado, let's get into, should you live with your partner in your twenties?
7:00 Jemma Sbeg? This question of should I move in with my partner in my twenties seems pretty simple at first, you know, you already kind of spend every night at each other's places. You've got a toothbrush in their bathroom, half your wardrobe is in their closet. You love each other, you get along. Why not just take the next step? There is something though about living with your partner rather than just spending time in your living environments with your partner that will change the whole dynamic of your relationship, whether you want it to or not, and whether for better or for worse. Now, traditionally, there have been, I think, two big schools of thought about do you live with somebody in your twenties? Or do you live with somebody before marriage?
7:44 Jemma Sbeg? And the first thought is that moving in before marriage, before a ring, can somehow ruin the magic, right? Cohabitating, it should be left for like the sanctity of marriage. This is a particularly religious or conservative idea, of course. It's definitely actually become more popular in modern day as well with people recognizing the benefit of living apart for longer, maintaining financial independence, maintaining personal independence. Even just like being able to have separate lives is actually quite healthy for relationships that are still quite young or occurring when you are quite young. The second school of thought is that you should live with somebody before you get
8:27 Jemma Sbeg? married, you should live with somebody in your twenties before you really take things to the next serious level. The argument is, you know, how else are you gonna know? How else are you gonna know that you're actually compatible in the day to day? Living with each other is like a trial run, right? For the rest of your life, it's like a way to test the waters before you sign like the metaphorical lease of forever.
8:53 Jemma Sbeg? Now, marriage is also not the end goal for everybody anymore. Some people never wanna get married, or it's not something that they're rushing to do. So I do think we shouldn't be thinking of this big conundrum. Do I live with my partner in my twenties or not? We shouldn't be thinking about it in terms of of marriage. But in terms of what do we stand to gain? And what might I risk by living with somebody in this formative period of my life? Based on my values, based on my future plans, whether that's marriage or not, based on my current lifestyle. What do I gain? What might I lose? Let's start with what you can gain. What are some of the pros of living with somebody in your twenties? The biggest pro is honestly that it's so much fun.
9:37 Jemma Sbeg? Like, you can't put a number on how enjoyable it is if you've moved in with the right person to just like, go to bed every night and just laugh and giggle, and it's just marvelous. Everything that's like mundane normally, grocery shopping, your commute, cooking dinner, becomes like so much more fun. It just is genuinely a dream. I think financially and logistically, it can also make a lot of sense, right? The cost of living, especially in our twenties, when you might still be figuring out your career, you're paying off student loans. Let's just not kid ourselves, the global economic climate is not amazing. It can be really brutal.
10:19 Jemma Sbeg? I live in Sydney, I live in the second most expensive city in the world. I have heard from friends in London and New York, also very expensive cities, that finances are a major factor in determining when people move in with their partners. In fact, people move in a lot quicker just to get that like economic and financial relief. You know, rent is rising, groceries cost us more fortune. Moving in together is a practical solution. I saw this twenty twenty three survey online done in the U S that found that fifty four percent, so just over half of cohabitating couples, say that finances are a major reason they move in together.
11:02 Jemma Sbeg? Honestly, it's not a bad reason, as long as it is not the only reason. Now, there is this very famous study about sliding versus deciding in a relationship that I think really convinces me that money cannot be the only reason you choose to live with somebody. This paper basically says, this theory basically says that when couples make major relationship transitions, they do one of two things. They either slide, meaning they gradually and often unconsciously increase commitment without explicit discussion or intention. So they move in together just because it is right and convenient and because it just seems like the basic next step.
11:48 Jemma Sbeg? Versus they decide, meaning they make a clear, mutual, deliberate choice to deepen commitment. They have conversations about it. Yes, they're still considering practical factors that may slide the decision, but they're in a rational, deliberate mind about the choice. So the authors of this study found that those who slide into big transitions often end up a lot less happy and they are much more likely to break up, largely because they never clarified expectations. They never were really aligned beforehand. They never may have discussed important things that you need to know about somebody before you live with them. They just saw it as the easy, available next step.
12:34 Jemma Sbeg? And that ambiguity, it can lead to asymmetric commitment, you know? Because the biggest factor is convenience, you don't really know how in somebody is because of their actual love for you and how in they are because of practicality. Yes, living with your partner can help you save money, but living with somebody out of financial necessity rather than emotional readiness adds a lot of pressure to a relationship very, very quickly. So that's just something to consider, but finance is still a pro. The third pro, the third thing you stand to gain is that it's incredibly convenient. You save, I cannot begin to, the amount of time that me and Tom save
13:18 Jemma Sbeg? not having to commute to each other's houses between, you know?
13:24 Jemma Sbeg? Basically, two different major cities every weekend or every day is incredible. And I think especially for him, when we were doing that kind of like medium distance relationship, he, you know, it may have looked like he was living in Wollongong, it may have looked like he was living at my house. He was living out of his car. Like, let's be completely real, real about it. Like, he had everything he needed. Like, he could have moved into his car because all of his stuff was in there because of this back and forth. I think it's not just that it's physically convenient, it will also bring you together emotionally. And I consider this a pro. I think it really tests the strength of your emotional bond.
14:08 Jemma Sbeg? You know, it is one thing to love somebody when they are all dressed up and you're out for dinner and everybody's on their best behaviour. It's another thing to love them when they're really stressed, really tired, really grumpy because somebody left the dishes in the sink, really hangry, all those different things. I think cohabitation gives you a front row seat to who your partner really is. Again, that's a pro for me. Ideally, you should have seen some of these things before you made the decision. Sometimes you don't. I personally, I really think that you shouldn't move in with somebody during your honeymoon period. That's just my
14:50 Jemma Sbeg? kind of, that's just my opinion. Because in that first like twelve to eighteen months of a relationship, when you are just like madly in love, there is nothing wrong with this person. You cannot see past the bad stuff to the more messy things. And I think that when you move in with somebody during that phase, it makes it so much harder to really like adjust when those things eventually come out. So I think, yes, living with somebody gives you a front row seat to those things. You also hopefully should have seen it before. You know, back to that previous point, that's why people call living together like the relationship accelerator. Everything is sped up, the connection, but also the conflict.
15:32 Jemma Sbeg? The communication, the hobbies you share, the relationship you have. You can learn in six months of living with somebody what it may have taken two to three years to learn about them. So you just need to know you're ready for that kind of shock of either, you know, loving somebody even deeper because of that or being a little bit scared off. I will say, you're probably like, why is this on the pros list? I think it's on the pros list because, you know, this is gonna sound cynical, but eventually you're going to learn about these things, right? And living together means you learn about them quicker. And if they are really big deal breakers, like it does save you a lot of time. And I think that, think of that as a pro.
16:15 Jemma Sbeg? And then, you know, if it does work out and you determine that you are really compatible, then you just get to know somebody even more intimately. So either way, like I do think that you know somebody better and whether you know that they're not right for you or know that they are right for you, that is still a huge, huge win. I think a big reason why it is so emotionally intimate as well, just to like further hone in on this point, is because this is the first person since your family to see you at this level of like intimate proximity. When you live alone, when you live with friends, there's still a degree of performance, even if it's small, you know?
16:57 Jemma Sbeg? You do still try to be more tidy and try to be a more functional adult version of yourself. But living with your partner, I think removes that layer. Like they do truly see everything. In a lot of ways, cohabitation feels very familiar. This is what I found. I feel like it's the first time I've done it, but I, I, it just feels like I've done it before. Because it mirrors that deep domestic intimacy that you have with your family. The sharing of space, the sharing of chores, the sharing of life, of the background noise of day to day. This time though, I think it's like a beautiful thing that you are, you're getting to choose your family.
17:40 Jemma Sbeg? You're choosing the person you wanna move in with, you're choosing your partner, rather than just being in the family that you're born into. It will though, somebody, something that I don't see people talk about a lot is when you move in with somebody, you will experience this thing called family reenactment.
17:57 Jemma Sbeg? Basically, all of us carry emotional patterns that we've learnt from early on, from across our lives, emotional patterns to do with affection, to do with conflict, responsibility, communication. And when you are with your partner and there is that same level of intimacy as you had with your family, this stuff is going to come out. And it might shock you, it might honestly terrify you to be like, wait, I'm in this big adult relationship and suddenly I'm acting like a child again? Why does that happen? Because I know that's a pretty common experience where you kind of feel like you're reversing in maturity. Well, we're going to talk about all of that, as well as some other complexities of living with somebody after this short break.
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22:37 Jemma Sbeg? So you move in with your partner, you're feeling super grown up. And then you find yourself regressing. Why is that? There's a really key psychoanalytic theory you should know called object relations theory. That explains this really well. The theory was developed in psychoanalytic psychology by Melanie Klein and Donald Wintecott. And they basically suggest that our earliest relationships, i.e. those with our parents or caregivers. Become internalized as objects. And by that, I don't mean physical objects, but emotional templates. These internal objects or templates represent how we learnt to relate to love.
23:20 Jemma Sbeg? Relate to care, safety and dependence. For example, if your primary caregiver was warm and reliable. Your internal template or object is one that tells you that intimacy feels safe. That love can be trusted. But if your caregiver was inconsistent, was critical, love was conditional. You carry around an internal template that says love is unstable. Love has to be earned. Fast forward to your twenties and suddenly, you know, you're living with your partner. The person who was closest to you since those original caregivers. Those internalized dynamics will reappear. This is where this concept of transference comes in.
24:01 Jemma Sbeg? This is the process whereby we project old feelings and expectations. From our early relationships onto our current ones. Especially during times when things feel a bit unstable or new. Like when you move in with somebody. It's fun, it's also stressful. Transference makes cohabitation so emotionally rich. Because you're sharing internal worlds, you're sharing emotional histories. You, there's, like, just the nature of the environment and the closeness that you are having is gonna feel reminiscent of previous times you felt this close to people. And those reactive or reactionary patterns will often be the same.
24:46 Jemma Sbeg? Now, the thing is, this is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it's actually an opportunity to rewrite previous models, previous templates of how you relate to people. You know, unlike your family dynamic, this relationship is chosen. You're not a kid anymore, you have self-awareness, you have hopefully equality, you can communicate, and you can actually address issues that come up in a way that your childhood self couldn't and say, hey, you know, when you get quiet during arguments, it reminds me of how silence felt in my house, I don't wanna do that anymore. Can we talk about this differently? I need you to be or to make more time for me because otherwise I feel my abandonment
25:30 Jemma Sbeg? wound really firing up. And that's how transference really can turn into deep emotional transformation. If you are with the right person and you're living together, you get to rewrite the emotional scripts you were handed. You create new templates for what love and safety and care can feel like. And I count that as a huge pro. I think a lot of my cons are also pros, right? When else do you have the opportunity? And it truly is an opportunity to rewire your primal childhood wounds. So, just to give a, a little rundown, pros, convenience, financial, makes financial sense.
26:14 Jemma Sbeg? Now, the pro of living together is it's just a lot of fun. Uh, it also challenges your emotional bond and it really tells you whether you should or shouldn't be with somebody. You know, obviously that might end in a breakup, that's not necessarily a bad thing if it saves you a lot of time. So with that in mind, let's switch gears. Let's talk about the harder parts, the things you should definitely be aware of before choosing to live with somebody in your twenties. Now, one of the biggest drawbacks, and it's gonna be ironic that I mention this considering what I just said, is that any future breakup is gonna be a lot more complicated. Not that it wasn't, isn't gonna be right, it's just gonna be complicated. And no matter how in love you are,
26:58 Jemma Sbeg? how strong the first few months of living together are, how strong you guys are as a couple before you move in, you, you are going to have moments where you fight and you argue and you feel like, you know, what are we doing? Like, can we work through this? It's just totally normal for couples to go through that. And maybe the answer you come to is no. When you live separately and you break up, you don't have kids, you don't have shared furniture, you don't have a pet, you can just leave. You cry, you unfollow, you heal, your space is not their space. When you live together, there's a lease, there's shared furniture, there's the shared pet, there's a shared life, there's shared bank accounts maybe.
27:42 Jemma Sbeg? These logistics alone can turn an emotionally hard breakup into a logistical nightmare. This has happened to a few friends of mine and it was honestly really hard to see them go through it. I know it was for the best, but you know, at times, like one of my friends had to continue living in an apartment with somebody who cheated on her. And the guy was in a new relationship because they had this lease and she couldn't afford to break it. Like, that is tough. Or the alternative is you ignore red flags to avoid the complications of a breakup because mentally now that you live together, you think it's gonna be way too difficult.
28:24 Jemma Sbeg? There is a term for this in psychology, it's called relationship inertia. It describes how living together can actually make people stay in relationships longer than they would have otherwise, simply because it's harder to leave. The thought of moving out, the thought of dividing belongings, of finding a new place, it can all make staying just seem a lot easier, even if you're unhappy. And then where does that leave you in a relationship you don't want to be in? All because you made a decision, maybe a little bit too early. We're going to return to the role of finances here as well. It comes up yet again, I feel like money is both the biggest pro and the biggest con.
29:07 Jemma Sbeg? Sharing rent and bills seems like it's going to be straightforward. It's going to save you money. It does actually introduce a layer of dependency that can be really tricky to navigate. What happens if one of you loses a job? What if you earn significantly different amounts? Do you split everything 50 50 or do you split it proportionally? What if you buy a property? You know, that's a whole other legal layer. Money, as we know from research conducted in 2014, is the biggest source of relationship conflict. And cohabitation brings that right to the surface. It's also, as that previous study said, one of the biggest reasons people move in together. I actually saw a recent Vice article aptly titled Till Debt Do Us Part,
29:52 Jemma Sbeg? which talked about this. And one of the surveys they discussed found that nearly one in four Americans in a relationship would leave if they knew they could get out without going broke. That is a quarter of the people they spoke to. A quarter of people were like, I actually don't want to be in this relationship. Money is what's keeping me here. And this is what the financial state of so many countries is encouraging. It's economic codependence. That means people are staying in relationships way longer than they should. And of course, that doesn't mean living together dooms you to inertia or dooms you to financial codependency. You just have to be extra aware of your motivations.
30:34 Jemma Sbeg? And I do also think that it's wise to still have your own bank account, to still have some of your own money. You know, you might trust this person with your life. People still make stupid mistakes. Things do still happen. It's not about having one foot out the door. It's just about being prepared for what life throws at you in the most rational and best possible way. Another practical con of moving in together is you do lose a lot of personal space. And you've just got to assess whether that's something you're willing to lose. You know, if you've ever lived alone, it's the best. I love living alone. You get to walk around in silence. You get to make as much or as little of a mess as possible.
31:18 Jemma Sbeg? Your room in your house always gets to feel the way you want it to feel. You're in charge of the furniture. You're in charge of what's on the TV. When you live with somebody else, that solitude and the freedom of that solitude does drastically shrink. You know, suddenly your downtime is shared time. Your home, the place that you used to retreat to, does become a shared environment. And yes, in an ideal world, you choose to be in a relationship where you can be your wacky, wonderful, weird self in front of them comfortably. But regardless of that, you still do need personal time to function. One estimate I found suggests that the perfect ratio for a relationship is seventy percent of time together, thirty percent of time alone.
32:03 Jemma Sbeg? That's the maximum level that people can handle. So what I mean by is like, if it went any higher than that, that's when a relationship does deeply suffer or does become hyperdependent. You just need to be able to recognize yourself as an individual. That's really what it means to be functioning in this relationship and out of it. Having enough time to know who you are outside of the bounds of who this person is to you. I think what works for me and Tom is that I work from home all day. So I spend a lot of time by myself whilst he is obviously at work and he has coworkers. And then when he gets home, I I'll be out and we kind of switch shifts where he has his alone time.
32:46 Jemma Sbeg? And that works really well for us, that, you know, our evenings and our days on the week are kind of a little bit separate. Like, obviously, we still see each other when one of us gets home and we still go to the gym together and all that stuff. But then on weekends is when we have our quality time, right? We always take Talu, our dog, on like a big adventure. You know, it's her weekend too. And then we like do a big grocery shop. We go for a big run. We do a date night. It's the best. That works for us because I need a lot more alone time than he does. My work situation, his work situation allows that. He's in the office full time. I'm at home full time. But it's all about just managing expectations and making sure that they're aligned.
33:31 Jemma Sbeg? With that in mind, let's talk about expectations for a second here. Living together will raise your expectations for your partner. This person is no longer your like weekend fun. This is your partner as in like needs to be by your side, should be by your side, has to support you through good and bad. Your expectations for them obviously increase. And when those expectations aren't met, resentment will grow in their, in their place. Resentment, as we know from relationship institutes, relationship researchers like the Gottman Institute, is like a huge poison for a relationship. If you resent the other person without communicating it, like your relationship isn't going to last.
34:14 Jemma Sbeg? And the first few months are usually the hardest when you are adjusting to each other's rhythms. You are adjusting to each other's routines and emotional lives. Conflict is going to increase in this time. I'm just gonna let you know that. Before you move in together, before you sign the lease, like you are going to fight probably the most in your relationship than you ever have in the first like six months that you live together. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. It's an adjustment thing. Just make sure you get to a solid ground with each other around what your expectations are now and what you maybe do and don't need from the relationship or from the future of your real relationship
34:59 Jemma Sbeg? to remain happy in this like new chapter that you're sharing. So with all that in mind, I want to talk about the five things you need to be super clear on before living with somebody in your twenties. The first one is money. So number one, you need to understand finances. And I have five things that you need to agree on or sit down with each other and talk about before you sign the lease. How is rent going to be split? I literally want you to get a piece of pen and paper and write this down like you are writing down a contract. How is rent going to be split? Are you going to have shared accounts? Who is responsible for managing and paying bills? And when and which and does that change? What will you buy together and what will you buy separately?
35:44 Jemma Sbeg? So like groceries, maybe one of you has really expensive hair care products. Maybe one of you wants to has a car that the other person uses, like what are you going to pay for separately and together? What is your plan if one of you loses your income or loses your job? These are pretty drag questions, super dry, but super important to iron out. I literally, I want you to write this down and put it in your cutlery drawer for future reference to come back to. Next, chores and domestic labor. Something seemingly as small as who does the dishes is very symbolically loaded. And the research is full of studies that demonstrate this. The unequal division of household work is a significant predictor of relationship breakdown.
36:30 Jemma Sbeg? I think chores are like a microcosm of the relationship. They're super small. Within them, big themes get represented. How do we share responsibility? How do we respect each other's time? How do we express care? And here's the uncomfortable truth about it, you know, in heterosexual relationships in particular. Even amongst progressive modern couples, the household load will still tend to fall heavily on women. Multiple studies, including research from the Pew Research Center from the University of Michigan. They found that women in cohabitating or married relationships still perform a disproportionate share of domestic labor,
37:14 Jemma Sbeg? even when they work more hours at their actual jobs, even when both partners work full time.
37:22 Jemma Sbeg? Sociologists call this, they actually have a name for it, the second shift. It's a term coined by Ali Hotchchild to describe how women often work a full day professionally and they come back and work a second job of managing the household. And it's not always intentional, it's not malicious, it's just deeply ingrained social conditioning. Women are often raised to notice domestic needs, to anticipate when the laundry is piling up, when the bathroom needs scrubbing, when the fridge is empty. You know, I feel so lucky that, and I'm not trying to brag, I know how this is gonna come off, but like, my boyfriend does all that stuff. Um, in fact, I think it's unequal for him, which is a win for feminism.
38:05 Jemma Sbeg? But I also know I, I pay more of the household expenses. So we've just found something that works for us. Um, and I also think that for me, like, I take on more of the thinking about our lives. He does more of the physical labour when it comes, or the physical chores when it comes to our lives. This brings me to the next point, the mental load, the invisible labour of remembering, planning, anticipating. Even in relationships where both partners are trying to be fair when it comes to chores, it's not just about tasks, it's about who keeps track of them. I feel like this is something a lot of men don't realise, like, women don't wanna have to ask you to do something.
38:47 Jemma Sbeg? You doing something because she asked is not as good as you doing something because you anticipated that it needed to be done. So when you move in together, it's really worth having a conversation. What does equal actually mean? What does mental load and the mental energy required for the upkeep of a home actually mean? Who's gonna take that on? How are we gonna have conversations around when things may fall off from being equal? Because they will, like, people get more busy at work, people travel. I just, you need to know who is responsible for those conversations and who is responsible for those activities. The good news, this is one of the easiest things to get right if you're conscious about it.
39:31 Jemma Sbeg? You can very easily create systems that distribute work and mental load, that alternate responsibilities, if you talk about it openly and if, you know, you're with somebody who is gonna be willing to meet you in the middle, meet you halfway. Okay, we're going to take another quick break, but when we return, let's talk about the two final things you should have ironed out before moving in with somebody and some final tips for keeping the love flowing. So stay with us.
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43:57 Jemma Sbeg? The next important thing to consider is what happens when you need alone time. Just because you live together doesn't mean you have to spend every second and every moment together. I think the healthiest thing you can do is maintain a sense of individuality. It's very easy to slip into social dependency, emotional dependency, because your partner is right there. Independence is what keeps the relationship fresh.
44:25 Jemma Sbeg? I really think it's important before you move in with each other to make sure that your personal lives and your individual lives are just as full and just as fruitful as the life you share together. You have hobbies, you have friends outside of the relationship, or you're committed to making new friends outside of the relationship. It's maybe it's just not something you have to think about, but if you do, and if you have any doubts about that, I think, give it some time so that you have independent lives before you merge them. I also think it's really important on the, on the flip side to schedule like dates in with each other, even if you live with each other. You need to have like a little ritual for your relationship. I think couples who keep dating each other
45:08 Jemma Sbeg? tend to have the longest and healthiest relationships because it's no longer passive. They're not just like a roommate. They are somebody that you're actively still falling in love with. So make sure you schedule the solo dates, schedule the solo nights. Also schedule the couple time and the couple dates to make it special. And finally, the final thing you should have ironed out of our five things is what is the protocol on guests? You don't want to feel like you're tiptoeing around your house when your partner's friends are around. You don't want to feel like you have to tell them no when their family visits that, you know, they can't stay in your spare bedroom. Having mismatched comfort levels around these things is normal. It's also going to create tension and it's going to cause you to turn against each other.
45:53 Jemma Sbeg? Have those conversations early, have them intentionally. Because when you move in with somebody, like you are merging emotional, internal, psychological lives. This place is also their place as much as it, as it is yours. And of course you want them to respect your wishes. But if there is this huge mismatch, it's probably worth just getting to the bottom of before you sign the lease. I also think it's a great mark of respect if you're both really considered in these kinds of decisions. It's not the end of the world to change your mind about these things. It's not the end of the world to have moments where somebody doesn't maybe necessarily think about the other person's feelings as clearly as they should.
46:38 Jemma Sbeg? It's okay to have moments of being really annoyed and frustrating. You are on the same team though. You are. Partners before you are roommates, just continue to revise and continue to talk about it. So before we wrap up, I want to give you some final questions to ask yourself before making the biggest, best, greatest decision of moving in with somebody. Answer these in your head, use them as journal prompts, whatever you need to do. Maybe you could even talk about them with your partner, whatever you want. Just have these in the back of your mind. I think they will reveal whether this is the right decision or not. Number one, why do you want to move in? Are you sliding or are you deciding?
47:22 Jemma Sbeg? Is it because it feels right emotionally or convenient financially? Neither is necessarily wrong, but just be clear on your intentions. Second, how do you typically individually handle conflict? And is there something that you could be doing or thinking about that could help you handle that better? Third, do you feel emotionally and physically safe with this person? You know, you are going to see each other at your very, very best and your very, very worst. Safety, whether it's emotional, psychological, physical is a non-negotiable. Is this person going to help you grow through hard times and do you feel like you can trust them? Fourth, are you on the same page about the future?
48:06 Jemma Sbeg? Not necessarily about marriage, but just about the future in general. What this move means for your relationship. I don't know if anybody else has been watching Nobody Wants This, but I feel like there is, I don't want to do spoilers. There is a specific scene in the latest season where they, well, I'm going to spoil it, where they talk about moving in with each other. And I just feel like the way they go about it is quite, well, one of them is quite mature and like the rabbi is quite mature. And Kristen Bell's character like isn't, but I really agreed with him where he was like, I don't know if we have a future together. If you have doubts about it, it's not saying you have to know, you don't have to have a ring.
48:49 Jemma Sbeg? But if you can see there is a genuine fundamental incompatibility that you just keep sweeping under the rug. Maybe don't do it. Maybe that is an incompatibility that you work through, that someone changes their mind about. But just be sure that this is something that's going to benefit and level up your relationship. And that the relationship has a future in general.
49:12 Jemma Sbeg? Number five, are you ready to share your space in this way? Love is one thing, living together is another. You can adore somebody and still realise you're not quite ready to merge your worlds. It's okay to wait. I feel like me and Tom had this discussion where we were like, I'm sure we could do it, but would this give us the best chances of enjoying it? When we like moving in with each other this early on, probably not. We're not ready to share space, we're not ready to share our lives yet. In this way, we are gonna wait and it was a great decision. And a bonus question, do you feel stable enough in yourself to make this choice? Now, obviously circumstances change, maybe you're getting kicked out of your apartment,
49:55 Jemma Sbeg? maybe you're super broke and you don't feel that stable in your life. But ideally, you should feel like there is not too much chaos going on. There is not too much chaos that is directly impacting this decision. This is a decision I am deciding on rather than sliding into. To give yourself the best chances that this relationship is gonna work. You obviously really love this person, you really care about this person. Know yourself, if you have a tendency to rush into things, to self sabotage, to get really excited. If this person is your forever person, you will get there eventually. You will move in with them eventually. If you feel like your life is not stable enough for you to make a rational choice about it, just hold off, hold off a little bit.
50:40 Jemma Sbeg? I think at its best, like, living with your partner in your twenties is really fun and it's really beautiful and you really get to know each other more and it's convenient and it makes financial sense.
50:53 Jemma Sbeg? You do close a chapter of your life that you have to feel ready to close. Like, I will say, I, again, I keep saying this, I love living with Tom. There was definitely a part of me that mourned the fact that unless something really bad happens. That I would obviously want to avoid, like one of us dies or we break up, like I'm gonna be sharing a bed with this man for hopefully the rest of my life. That makes me feel excited. I'm happy about that. There is definitely a part of me that did mourn. You know, living alone and did mourn um the independence of being single and the independence of
51:33 Jemma Sbeg? just being alone in my space and just getting to live and operate every single day without having to think about somebody else. It is like, there is obviously like an equation that is inherent in this. You do have to give up something to gain something. Are you ready to give that up? Have you learnt what you needed to learn from your alone time, from your living alone time, from your even like your single era time? Obviously, you're not single if like you've been dating them for a while, but like I, I don't know what the word for it is. Alone time. Okay, we'll go with that. With your alone time, your okay, I'm gonna stop trying to find the right word. Your alone time is what I mean. Just be really, really cognizant of it.
52:15 Jemma Sbeg? You know, you don't want to feel suffocated. You don't want to feel like you rushed into this prematurely and then you have to go back and you have to explain things and you know, it's gonna get messy. I just think the longer you wait, especially the longer you outwait the honeymoon period, the better it's gonna be. So as for the question, should you move in with your partner in your twenties? I don't know. There's no universal answer, but I just think consider those points, consider those questions, consider the pros and cons, and if you stand to gain more than you stand to lose, which I don't think you will lose all too much. Absolutely, you should do it and have the best time at Ikea, have the best time painting, have the best time going house hunting. Like it's so much fun. It's so enjoyable and
52:59 Jemma Sbeg? I'm excited for you and for your next chapter. If you made it this far in the episode, if you made it all the way to the end, leave a little house emoji down below. Thanks for being a loyal listener. Thanks for making it to the conclusion of this episode. I want to thank our researcher Libby Colbert for her help on this episode and her contributions. If you want to make an episode suggestion, if you want to tell me about your experience moving in with somebody, whether it was good, bad, what your tips are. Send me a DM on Instagram at that psychology podcast and make sure you're following us over there as well. Make sure you are following us wherever you are listening and please, if you could kindly give us a five star review, it really helps the show to grow and reach
53:44 Jemma Sbeg? new people, whether you're listening on Apple, on Spotify, on the iHeartRadio app, I would greatly appreciate it. But until next time, thanks again for tuning in. Stay safe, be kind, be gentle to yourself. Good luck with the potential move in and we will talk there very soon.
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