Its been kind of difficult since my wife and I have been married to have split accounts. I love to have the ability to buy things without question (as long as we are both paying the bills), but now we have to think about college funds for our daughter, vacations, unexpected expenditures, retirement. What works for you and why?
We were separate for a while. But now we do both. Both our paychecks go into a joint account for bills, our daughter, etc.... and we allow 250 per check each for our own personal things. It works out really well, and you don't completely lose that independence thing you're referring too.
I'm in the same situation as you. My girlfriend and I are thinking about what would be best. My cousin gave the advice that there should be a joint account as well as your own. Each one would put 10% (or whatever you want it to be) of their paycheck into the joint account. They used to even assign bills to each other in addition to the joint account. for example, the husband took care of utilities, phone, etc. and the wife took care of cell phone, groceries, etc. The joint account was there for things they could both use like a new TV, bed, and was also used as an emergency/piggy bank account.
we do the three account system. One main account that all income goes into. Then we have two sub accounts linked off that. The main account pays bills and money is transferred to the sub accounts so we each have our own to do what we want with. there is also a savings account that I transfer money into for things like big trips, rainy day needs, etc This has by far been the best way for us. We tried separate accounts which wasn't good. We never police each other on what was spent from each others account. It just helps her live within limits. Good luck
I have been married for 10 years and have always had a combined checking account. We do allow a certian amount of funds out of each check for personal things but we just use cash for that (we actually use cash for groceries, dine out, entertainment, etc...), so when you spend it and the cash is gone it is gone. We budget our funds on a combined basis so we know where all of our money is going to be spent before we get it. This way there is really no point in having separate accounts.
I give her all my money. we have a joint acount, and she runs everything since I'm a lazy bum and she's an actual accountant
Me too, except for the accountant part. She was using a nice Teacher Credit Union so I just started using hers. One account is enough to deal with.
me and my wife do the 3 account thing as a previous poster stated. 2 personals and one joint, we puff puff give with no arguments.
We opened our first joint account before we got married and since then we have closed all of our individual accounts (except retirement accounts) and all of our checking and investment accounts are held jointly.
It's the opposite in my house. I'm in charge of managing the money (investing, paying bills, etc) and my wife is in charge of spending it!
I have been thinking about this for a while now. Me and my girlfriend have been dating for 6 years, live together and everything. I am kind of wary of it now for several reasons. 1. She makes more than me but for some reason struggles. She does not really have any high bills either. All I can think of is student loans, credit cards, car insurance, and a Dell account. The thing is her mileage check can cover all that and she would still have an extra $2000+ per month from pay days. 2. Her mother works at a bank and I know she would want to use that bank or her mother would talk her into doing so. I normally would not have a problem with but she consistently looks in her daughter's account and will call and say "What do you spend this on?" "Why did you get this out of the ATM?" Umm, HELL NO! 3. Once her money is gone then whose money is she going to spend next? That's right... Honestly, her money management is one reason I have not popped the question yet even after 6 years.
You should have made a 3rd option being a joint and separate accounts. I think you'll find many are doing both as a compromise of both systems.
Joint. Spending is either understood (bills, gas, groceries, whatever) or discussed beforehand. My wife wants to avoid spending us into the poorhouse as much as I do. We do each have our own credit cards, which is a bit like having separate bank accounts.
Figure it out ahead of time, it will be an issue. Just have to address the issues and figure out what works. The mother in law looking at bank accts is crazy
