I know this is a personal or touchy subject for most people, but what works for you guys? Do you have one account for you both? Individual accounts only? Or a mix of both?
Right now the Fiance and I have our own accounts and a joint one we use for our wedding savings and purchases. I'd like to keep it this way or move to have our accounts all at one bank instead of three different ones. So what will we do after the big day?
Personally, I would like my own account along with our personal account so that we each can have a weekly "budget" to use or save as we please without getting any flack from the other, whether it's personal buys, lunches or gifts for each other. Then I would also like to have a joint account for us to use for everyday stuff, savings, etc.
The Fiance wants us to have just joint accounts. Nothing is wrong with that, but having my own account gives me a sense of independence still. He can have access to it, I'm not trying to hide anything from him, I just want something that's still "mine". Also, what if we don't communicate and we double pay the same bill, neglect a bill or over draw our account? Obviously, we don't do that with our individual finances now and don't plan on it in the future, but mistakes happen.
There's no rules for this, most people find what works best for them through trial and error. Here are some issues you need to discuss when combining your budget that I found helpful from MSN.com article "Are your finances as strong as your marriage?". I've only touched on a few topics in this post, so you can check out the full article here. It's really good!
-Banking and Bill-paying
Where to bank? What kind of accounts? Who is in charge of paying what and how?
-Joint Accounts
Will you set one up to go along with your own separate accounts? Will you only use a joint account?
-Where will your paychecks be deposited?
Will your paychecks go directly into your joint account? Will you take a sum of that and deposit it into your own personal account? Or vice versa, depositing your paycheck into your personal account and then transferring money to your joint account?
-How will you make spending decisions?
Will there be a cap in which you can spend without having "permission"? I'm sure it's cool with the Fiance if I buy a cd, but I should probably consult with him before buying a new entertainment system.
-Credit and Debt
You can try and keep your debts separate, but at some point you will have to combine debts, like when buying a home or car. Knowing your partner's strengths/weaknesses help you both in deciding what you need to do to improve your credit score and making a plan to pay of current debts.
-Future Savings
How will you save for a home, retirement, children's college funds etc? How much will you contribute and how often? How will you save the money or invest it?
What works for you guys? How did you find a solution? What's your advice?
15 comments :
We have seperate accounts and joint accounts. We put a set amount of each paycheck in the joint checking for bills, a set amount into a joing savings, a set amount into our own checking for weekly play money, and a set amount into our own savings- for big purchases we each want (ie boob job or some big tool chest with speakers and a mini fridge lol). It works really well for us! My personal accounts are at a different bank than his, but our join accounts are at the same bank.
We're doing it exactly how you are...we each have our own accounts and then a joint account we're using strictly for the wedding. Since we both have a 2nd job we put those paychecks directly in the wedding account. I think after the wedding we'll just flip it...our main sources of income will go in to the joint account which we'll use for bills, groceries, etc. Then our second incomes will go in to our individual accounts so that we each have our own spending money.
we still have our own separate individual accounts, but share a joint money market for savings and big purchases for our house (i.e. new electrical work, new HVAC unit, new bathroom, you get the idea). we divide the regular monthly bills and each are responsible for paying them (he pays cable/internet, i pay the power/phone bills). it works fine for us for right now. if one day, he makes millions of dollars...things may change ;)
Ditto to LindseyLove's comment.
We have both. We each have our own checking, then we have a mortgage account and a joint savings. We split bills. Little different but it works. We are all at the same bank. (It just makes it easier to transfer Money if we need to make payments etc). Great question! Everyone seems to have their own system. My dad to this day has no idea about my parents finances because my mom has always done them!
We have our own checking accounts and savings accounts. We have talked about merging our savings but haven't gotten around to it, and it seems to work ok for us the way it is right now. We divide up bills (he pays certain things, I pay certain things) and we decide on large purchases together (for example, we bought a laptop this summer and money came out of both of our savings so we could pay for it together).
We haven't gone and done anything yet...but this is what we plan on doing...Joint checking, joint savings, and then a separate savings at a different bank for left over cash...money that comes out of this account will be for emergencies or vacations...we also will have another account that is for the house. Nick had already started that years ago so we will keep that one for when we can buy!
We have been having these same discussions!! I think we're going to have a joint checking for bills, house and couple stuff, a joint savings to hopefully save, and then separate accounts because we both work hard for our money, and should be able to have some spending cash for whatever we want! :)
So not to get too personal, but we each have a separate account that our monies get deposited into. Then, each month we place the same amount of money into the joint account. This is house stuff, pet stuff, etc. We are usually together when we make these purchases and pay these bills.
However, I would caution most people against keeping the separate accounts where he pays some bills and she pays other bills. The reason for this is that a member of my family is going through a divorce currently where his responsibility was the mortgage and her responsibility was utilities, home decor, and groceries.
One of the arguments his lawyers presented was that the home was 100% his and she could only take the contents. If you read that correctly it states: he gets to keep the property that has increased in value, but she gets to keep the assets inside of it that have (for the most part) decreased in value.
Let's just say it's not a pretty situation and I'd hate to see that happen to anyone else.
My husband and operate a little differently. We've been married for 6 months but had lived together for about 3-4 years. During that time, we had separate accounts (we are both with the same bank which make transfers a lot easier). I handled the bills and rent and told him what he owes me each month. Now that we're married, we decided not to change anything. A joint account really wouldn't work for us since I have a full time job which makes my money situation steady, while he's a freelance web developer (his money situation changes month to month). We're still renting so once its time to buy a house maybe we'll change it up a little bit.
we have separate checking accounts but they are connected and joint savings (and separate).
We only have joint accounts, but we also have pretty similar spending habits. Neither one of us really like to spend that much money and if we are making a big purchase we make sure to talk to each other about it. I'm in charge of paying bills and all that...so we don't really have to worry about double paying anything. Good luck in sorting all this out...it's one of the hardest parts of getting married!
REBrown
rekdbrown.blogspot.com
We kinda have both. We have our main checking account, which we use to pay bills, buy groceries, etc. And it also has a small savings too. Then Chris has a business account that he uses for all the purchases he needs to make regarding work and that also has a savings account attached to it. But technically they are both join accounts because we both have cards and access to both. We have some credit cards together and at least one each where it's just our own, but we don't use them except to put one bill on each to keep them "active" or in case of emergency. I wouldn't like having separate accounts because to me it would all just get too confusing. Finances are a tough subject though so make sure you talk it ALL out and agree on rules and who does what beforehand to avoid problems on the future.
The hubby & I have been married for 6 years and have kept our own accounts...he pays some bills & I pay other ones. The plus I get to spend my $ as I please w/out him asking about it.
You're already WAY ahead of me and we've been married for over 6 years! We combined accounts when we were engaged and it's been fine but we're just now discovering that we should have our own "allowance" separate so we don't have to justify every personal purchase to each other. I think it's good to have 1 person in charge of paying all the bills so there is no confusion but both need to look at the budget together frequently so the other isn't clueless of the finance situation. You are so smart Kristen! You think of everything, all of you ducks will be in a row when you get married for sure!!
Post a Comment