shared accounts (clicky poll)

barrjn84

Several of my friends that are married have said that they have seperate checking/savings account than their husbands and they just split the bills.  I don't understand this.  Isn't marriage a shared venture?  I realize this may be an unpopular opinion but I just don't see the point in not sharing.

[Poll]

smilelari

We have both joint and separate

MAtoNC

We both kept our checking accounts from before we married, but we opened a joint one together. Both of our paychecks go into the joint account and then money sometimes get reallocated from there.

lifesadance

We've thought about each having a separate account but then we think "why?"  When we first got married we didn't have enough money to have separate accounts and now it's just a force of habit.  I think it's nice and also keeps us in check about our spending a lot of the time because we know what the other is spending money on. 

To each his own.

ananshelby

We have a joint checking and savings, and then we each have our own savings.

blublusher

we have a joint account and i take care of all bills and budgeting. I could buy myself a nice new pair of earings and he wouldn't even know it! boo ha ha!!

 

cindydee

we have 1 shared account & that is all. it just makes it easier when we have all of our bills coming out of 1 account

daisy_dueller

AnaNShelby:

We have a joint checking and savings, and then we each have our own savings.

We have our own separate accounts that our pay goes into, and that we spend out of, and have a shared savings account. I have vowed to never fight about money in my marriage, and this is the way that it works for us. We're not questioning each others purchases, and as long as our bills are paid on time, that's all I care about.

We split bills. He pays the mortgage, car insurance and gas, I pay for everything else. I'm on mat leave right now, so only getting 55% of my wage, which is a struggle, but we're making it work.

mistywhite400

smilelari:

We have both joint and separate

this...they are all linked but his paycheck goes into his account & mine gos into mine & we have a sharred savings.

We split bills & whatever is left over after bills and savings is his & I don't ask what he does with his left overs & same with mine.  Although we both tell each other what we purchase b/c we don't hide anything.  This works well for us.

ahappygilmore

We have only joint accounts, its just easier for us.

Leap08

We have both. Our mortgage comes out of our joint account, but we split everything else and pay for it out of our separate accounts. We lived together for a long time before we got married and this is how we have always handled our bills. I know the number 1 thing that married couples fight over is money, but we have never had this problem. I am not about to change things, because I'm afraid it would open up a huge can of worms.

redhotchili83

We only have shared.  We've been togehter since we were 17and living together since we were 19, so wehn we met, we didnt have sh*t.  It was easier to get our joint acct down to $100 than to have both our separate accts down to $50 (less chance of overdrawing for beer money!).  For us, I dont see the need for separate.

My mom and stepdad, on the other hand, have separate. They got married in their 40's and already had their own established savings and chekcing accounts.  It saves arguments to not meddle in each others finances (plus then my mom can buy stuff for her kids and SD can get stuff for his kids without having to ask "permission).

cherrykat

We added each other's names to our existing accounts so technically we have all joint accounts.  

I manage my account and he manages his account.  That way, we know if we see any funny charges we don't assume it's from the other person.  We can choose to look in each other's accounts if we want but really don't see a need.  He's in charge of certain bills and I'm in charge of other bills - helps balance the responsibilities.   

whitdog23

We have separate checking accounts and a joint savings account (and I have a savings account from pre-marriage that I just leave alone with what was in there then although I no longer put money into).

We have no problem splitting certain bills and I pay some and he pays others.  If its not broken, dont fix it. 

alicia11780

I voted SS.  We both have our own accounts that each other are joints on.  DH pays the bills, and anything else family related, out of his account.  He puts my "paycheck" into my account and I use that money for whatever I want to use it on.

CJ2008

we had a joint account and we both had a separate account until a year ago. Then I closed my account b/c I wasn't making enough to keep it open lol. DH still has one, but I'm not really sure why. well, its mainly b/c we're changing everything around in a few months (when he goes Active Duty) so he doesn't want to change everything before then just to do it again.

tashacu02

Leap08:

We have both. Our mortgage comes out of our joint account, but we split everything else and pay for it out of our separate accounts. We lived together for a long time before we got married and this is how we have always handled our bills. I know the number 1 thing that married couples fight over is money, but we have never had this problem. I am not about to change things, because I'm afraid it would open up a huge can of worms.

This is the same for us!

stckgrl79

We have separate everything.  I pay all the bills except electric cable groceries water bill and odds and ends. He is in charge of his bills I am in charge of mine. The rule is-buy whatever you want AFTER all the bills are paid. If we want a big purchase we both put money in an envelope and wait.  He is POA on my accounts since he used to work at the bank I opened them up at so if I have a problem I let him deal with it but he does not touch my money and I do not touch his. We never talk about money unless one of us feels there is an issue or one of us wants something big!

I was always brought up to have enough money in an account to survive on if something were to happen or make sure to make enough money if a man were to up and leave (mom got divorced 2x if you can't tell). So that is what I do.

iowagirl73

We have joint and separate checking and savings accounts.

mrs_sherod

We have a joint checking account, but only his paychecks go there.  I used to use that same checking account, but DH is AWFUL with money.  I have a separate checking and savings at the bank and checking and savings at my credit union. 

As far as bills go, I take his portion of the bills from his account and pay things that way.  This works out well for us.  If both of our paychecks went into the same account, we'd fight quite often, life is better this way.