‘I split my salary with my best friend. People think we’re strange.’

Earlier this week on TikTok, a now-viral video stopped me in my tracks.

It was posted by Australian expat Caitlin Emiko, who said she splits her salary with her best friend.

As in... completely down the middle. 

Watch: 4 money hacks that don't cut out your daily cup of coffee. Post continues after video. 

The 25-year-old, who now lives in New York City, says she has two incomes — one through freelance content creation and influencing, and the other from working at an "invite-only subletting platform and social club". 

And for every dollar she makes on the social media side, 50 cents of it goes to her housemate and best friend. 

"My best friend gets half of my salary and people think it's so strange," she said. "Essentially how it works is I get paid a salary and obviously if I do any influencer work and get payment for that, I give 50 per cent of it to my housemate/best friend."

@caitlin.emiko Another one #bestfriend #moneytok ♬ nyc in 1940 - berlioz & Ted Jasper

Caitlin said the same goes for her best mate, who gives her half of everything she makes in content creation as well. 

"We've actually been sharing our finances for over a year now and all of our friends think it's so f**king weird," she explained. "How it works is imagine you get paid $100 and someone else gets paid $180. That $280 gets pooled into our joint bank account and then out of that, it's split 50/50 so [we] can go spend it on whatever you want.

She continued: "I could wake up on a random Friday and [my housemate] is like, 'I sent you $500 for next week' or whatever it is. We also keep money in that joint account for things we do together that aren't personal shopping and different things like."

The 25-year-old added that she actually has "no idea" how much is in their shared account. 

"I don't do the finances," she said. "I literally have no idea how much is in our account, how much we get paid [or] when we get paid. Honestly, it's like having someone control your money which is pretty funny."

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Caitlin insists there is a lot of trust between the friends. 

"One of the biggest questions we get asked is, 'Has anyone ever spent a large sum of money without the other one knowing?' No," she said. 

"I feel like this structure makes me more financially responsible because someone else is watching what you do with your money."

Caitlin says that the concept of sharing finances is definitely bizarre for some, but it's something she got used to with her ex-boyfriend who she dated for seven years before moving to the United States. 

"I still share a mortgage with him and we still have shared bank accounts as well," she shared, adding that they rent out the property they still jointly own. 

"We both put the same amount of money into the account each month and then we have tenants that pay into that. It's not positively geared yet... so we do have an excess on our mortgage that we split 50/50," she explained. 

@caitlin.emiko Replying to @IG owning a house with your ex check #owningahouse #exboyfriend #breakups #jointfinances ♬ original sound - Caitlin Emiko

"Because we both have access to the account, we can take out money as we please or put in money as we please... He'll take money out for things if there are repairs or maintenance. I will literally not bat an eyelid. I'll be like, 'Okay. Cool. No worries.' The same goes for me."

She added: "The decision to keep the property was based on the fact that it's quite a good investment. It's quite literally the s**ttest house on a really good street. 

"It would be so stupid financially for our future to sell it now and not really have made any profit from it. We've been doing this for over a year now and it is working perfectly fine for us."

Feature Image: Instagram @caitlin.emiko.