Joint or separate checking account for married people.

[DT4K]

Originally posted by: blakeatwork
We setup a joint account after being together about 3 years...

We do however, keep our CC's separate, as those can always come back to bite either party in the butt if the relationship ever dissolved... sad that the caution has to be put there, but better safe then sorry i guess..

Yeah, our CC's are separate as well. But since we pay the CC bills out of a joint checking account, it's really still shared spending.

 

[rh71]

we have our own separate accounts, then a joint, all at the same bank so we can transfer money instantaneously online into (and out of) the joint account when needed (mortgage, etc.)

 

[Biggerhammer]

We have a few joint accounts (me listed first on one, her listed first on the other) for family bills and such. We also each have a separate account for our own projects. When she wants to buy new sunglasses or whatever, she buys it from the account. When I want a new upgrade for the computer or whatever, I spend from my account. That lets us have the best of both worlds.

 

[AmdInside]

My wife and I have kept separate accounts because we got married while my wife was in school...its a long story. Anyways, she is going back into the working world again and so we are going ot have a joint account. However we are also going to keep separate account as well. Basically, 20% of what I earn goes into my own account and the other 80% goes into our joint account. The joint account is for savings and bills. The 20% is for our own spending. Got it? Good 🙂

 

[CRXican]

My parents have seperate accounts and pay for different expenses.

 

[waggy]

we have both. we each have a personal checking account and we have a joint account (90% of everything is paid out of it)

the personal account is for if i wan't toys or whatnot. That way we can budget how much we spend on junk. all bills, food, house items, etc is out of the joint account

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: CPA
My money is my money, and my wife's money is my money. So it all goes in my account. I was nice enough to add her name onto the account, though.

exactly

 

[MAME]

my gf buys stuff that I think is dumb, so I'll make her beg me for $ or give me sexual favors first if we get married.

 

[damiano]

i'm the only one making money in our relationship as she stays home to take care of our son.

so she has her account on which i give her a bit of cash every month to save up for herself and buy personal sh!t and she has a credit card of a 1000 dolars under my name that she uses for supermarket and other house expenses.

I make all the rest of finances and pay all the bills

 

[DarthMaul9d9]

I want to know exactly where everything is spent, and the only way to do that is to have seperate accounts. I pay the bills, my wife then writes me out a check for half of them each month. There has never been an argument over it. Why would there be?

 

[bozack]

My wife is very good with money, rarely if ever buys anything for herself and always saves, I on the other hand have some hobbies and such and like to buy things thus we have one joint checking account and a joint savings which our paychecks get dumped into and she pretty much handles the bills and savings and what not. I also have my own savings account which I put money from side jobs and ebay sales into so that if I do want something I can draw from that....now that we are looking at buying furniture she is asking me for some of my side money to fund that purchase which isn't a problem however if I want to buy something for myself I have to be more frugle with my personal funds...

 

[Jumpem]

To me marriage is all about sharing your life with another person. Separate accounts just seem to add an element of distrust and separateness into something that should have neither.

 

[Beau]

Originally posted by: Jumpem
To me marriage is all about sharing your life with another person. Separate accounts just seem to add an element of distrust and separateness into something that should have neither.

Not really.

It's a way to contribute to something together while still keeping your independance.

Best advice I recieved when getting married was from my great grandfather who's been married for 65 years. The key to marriage is to not consume eachother so much that you snuff eachother's individual. Learn to go your seperate ways together.

 

[Goth]

Originally posted by: Papagayo
I've been married for 5 years and we have always had joint checking account. Anything we purchase that is over $100, we both would have to agree..

That's basically the way Mrs. Goth and I have ours. We have joint checking and savings. Any big purchase (normally $75 or more) is agreed upon by both first. She pays the bills and I manage/track our accounts, including retirement and IRAs.

**Note** If this posts twice, it's due to JRun rearing its ugly head again.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I think separate accounts are some sort of new school thing. The fact that some couples don't have joint checking accounts just doesn't make sense to me. You're married. You're supposed to trust each other 100% if you get married. Money is one of the leading reasons that people get divorced. The divorce rate if ridiculous, somewhere around 50%.

Now, which type of checking account do you think would lead more towards the 50% rate? I figure if you can't trust each other enough to have a joint checking account then you just don't need to be married.

 

[SilentZero]

My wife and I have had a joint account since we were married (almost 7 years now). The first 3 1/2 years I made more than her, but since then shes made more than me. And the past 2 years Ive been a full time student so my income is about 25% of hers (VA disability and some other benefits). Luckly, my wife could care less about money really. As a matter of fact, in 2002 when I bought a 2002 BMW M3 (50+k ), she even voluntarily threw in the 10k in her savings (from when she worked in HS and college) to add to the downpayment, according to her "Cause I can see it makes you happy", and then didn't even care if her name was on the title. She insisted it was my dream car, and that It should be mine. We are both in our late 20's, and never had a problem with a joint account, and I don't anticipate having one either.

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: Fingolfin269
I think separate accounts are some sort of new school thing. The fact that some couples don't have joint checking accounts just doesn't make sense to me. You're married. You're supposed to trust each other 100% if you get married. Money is one of the leading reasons that people get divorced. The divorce rate if ridiculous, somewhere around 50%.

Now, which type of checking account do you think would lead more towards the 50% rate? I figure if you can't trust each other enough to have a joint checking account then you just don't need to be married.

Exactly.🙂