bank accounts (clicky poll)

iluvmylab · November 2011

I'm curious about this....we just have 1 joint account. DH makes almost twice what I do, but our view is that we are married so it's all the same. We pretty much buy what we want, but always consult each other for larger purchases.

[poll]

mrsfowler1016 · November 2011

Exactly what you said.

robynlynn83 · November 2011

We have two separate accounts with both of us on them. DH has a credit union account which we love and I have an account with a larger bank for when we travel so we have easy access to ATMs etc. We each pay certain bills out of the accounts but both of us use both accounts.

GoombaGirl_79 · November 2011

We have a joint account for our main stuff, but DH has a separate savings style account because he has to keep a "float" of money aside from his checks from work to keep as a "tool allowance". He's a journeyman.

Julia_JJ · November 2011

All of our money goes into the joint account - all bills are paid from there. We each have a transfer to our individual accounts of a flat amount each month (rather than a percentage - he may make twice as much as me, but I work just as hard, so getting the same amount of spending money is more fair than a percentage-based approach). That money is for haircuts, gifts for friends, hobbies, happy hours where we go on our own (vs. together, which we consider a joint expense), etc. Whatever is left rolls over, so you can either spend it all monthly (me) or save it up and buy something larger (him). Money left in our joint account at the end of the month rolls into savings.

lovemypups1 · November 2011

Joint. MH also makes about double what I make. What's his is mine

EvenAngelsFall · November 2011

We have a joint account we use for the mortgage, cable / utility bills, food, etc... and then we each have our own separate accounts that we had before we got married.

I use my account for things like my manis & pedis, and he uses his for gadget obsession.

We both have direct deposit at out jobs, and 75% of our checks go into our joint account, and 25% into our personal accounts.

Works well for us.

iluvmylab · November 2011

EvenAngelsFall:
We have a joint account we use for the mortgage, cable / utility bills, food, etc... and then we each have our own separate accounts that we had before we got married.
I use my account for things like my manis & pedis, and he uses his for gadget obsession.
We both have direct deposit at out jobs, and 75% of our checks go into our joint account, and 25% into our personal accounts.
Works well for us.

We did this for a year or two, but when our bank started charging us for the accounts, we cancelled them since they were not used much anyway and just use the joint now.

I have a friend and she and her DH only have separate. They split the mortgage, bills, everything. Whenever we go out with them it's always really awkward because they discuss in front of others who is paying and it always seems like it causes tension between the two of them. I am curious for people's reasons for doing it this way I guess.

kwinkle1980 · November 2011

We decided to follow my parents' example. They have always had seperate accounts and they have been married for 37 years. We do have one credit card that we share. We use it for shared expenses and pay it off in full each month. Then we share the rewards from that account as well. I like this a lot because if I want to buy myself something, I don't have to justify it to him. I have a job and make my own money. This will all change, of course, once my current teaching contract is up in August and I become a SAHM. I am nervous about this because I love to shop, and DH is very frugal. I am going to have to change my ways.

Moozilla11 · November 2011

We share DHs bank account but I get my VA checks put into a separate account that we use for groceries and diapers. Helps us budget. It will probably change after we start CDing though

Mike&Care · November 2011

DH makes about 95% of our total income... but it's all the same money. Same account. We are in this together!

emd2887 · November 2011

We have both separate and joint accounts. The vast majority of our expenses come out of our joint account, but we both have our savings from before we were married.

buttercup1221 · November 2011

Exactly what you said. However, we have our main acct & savings as joint but we do each have our own checking acct that we each get $$ deposited into each month from the joint acct. The separate accts are strictly for individual "fun" money to budget ourselves on how much each of us spends. We find it helps keep us on budget since we know we can only spend what we get for the month and then we are done until the next months deposit.

Before we would find it way to easy to justify buying things like new clothes, or a new computer, etc because we had the $$ in our joint savings or checking and no one was holding us to how much we were spending every month. This way we keep it limited; which allows us to put all of our extra money towards our other financial goals without making us feel like we can't have any luxuries.

EvenAngelsFall · November 2011

iluvmylab:
EvenAngelsFall:
We have a joint account we use for the mortgage, cable / utility bills, food, etc... and then we each have our own separate accounts that we had before we got married.
I use my account for things like my manis & pedis, and he uses his for gadget obsession.
We both have direct deposit at out jobs, and 75% of our checks go into our joint account, and 25% into our personal accounts.
Works well for us.
We did this for a year or two, but when our bank started charging us for the accounts, we cancelled them since they were not used much anyway and just use the joint now.
I have a friend and she and her DH only have separate. They split the mortgage, bills, everything. Whenever we go out with them it's always really awkward because they discuss in front of others who is paying and it always seems like it causes tension between the two of them. I am curious for people's reasons for doing it this way I guess.

If our separate banks started to charge, I am sure we'd reconsider our arrangement too....

That does sound awkward about your friends. As for us, when we go out with other people, we also use the joint. Anything that's for BOTH of us, whether its a household expense, or a date night, or a meal with friends, comes from the joint.

uncharch7 · November 2011

our checks get deposited into our joint account. we each transfer money out of that account for our fun money, and i also transfer money out that pays my SLs and life insurance bills. everything else is paid jointly. i move money into savings every month from that joint checking.

getnmarried910 · November 2011

Our belief is when two become one, everything does. The only money that is separated is in our envelope system. We both get a blow envelope that can be used on anything we want. Some months we choose to fill other envelopes, or don't choose, but a necessity comes up, and we don't get those envelopes. Not a big deal. Everything else about our money is shared. We only have one account anyway.

lageorgiapaperie · November 2011

I asked DH to be put on his account but so far we haven't done it, so for now we have 2 separate accounts. Well, his account, my account with $50 in it and then I get unemployment benefits on a debit card every other week.

alexvause · November 2011

Married people with separate accounts is so weird to me. My mom and stepdad have this set up and its a mess. To me marriage is about joining families, finances, everything.

kwinkle1980 · November 2011

ruby soho:
Married people with separate accounts is so weird to me. My mom and stepdad have this set up and its a mess. To me marriage is about joining families, finances, everything.

I guess you can call me weird, then. I am not sure why people care, honestly, what we do with our finances. Commitment is not lessened by seperate finances.

alkinney · November 2011

kwinkle1980:
ruby soho:
Married people with separate accounts is so weird to me. My mom and stepdad have this set up and its a mess. To me marriage is about joining families, finances, everything.

I guess you can call me weird, then. I am not sure why people care, honestly, what we do with our finances. Commitment is not lessened by seperate finances.

I agree with this. I dont ever think the way people handle theie money lessens their commitment to each other. Everyone is different, with different backgrounds. My husband and I have joint savings, separate checkings (we both love our banks), but we're on each others accounts. All money made is shared. There is no debt, bills always get paid in full on our own credit cards.

kwinkle1980 · November 2011

alkinney:
kwinkle1980:

ruby soho:
Married people with separate accounts is so weird to me. My mom and stepdad have this set up and its a mess. To me marriage is about joining families, finances, everything.

I guess you can call me weird, then. I am not sure why people care, honestly, what we do with our finances. Commitment is not lessened by seperate finances.

I agree with this. I dont ever think the way people handle theie money lessens their commitment to each other. Everyone is different, with different backgrounds. My husband and I have joint savings, separate checkings (we both love our banks), but we're on each others accounts. All money made is shared. There is no debt, bills always get paid in full on our own credit cards.

Amen, sister.

nilly5 · November 2011

We're not married, so we have 2 seperate accounts. I've been trying to convince him that we need to make a joint account so we can both pay our bills & both have the same amount of fun money.

rubyjem00 · November 2011

ruby soho:
Married people with separate accounts is so weird to me. My mom and stepdad have this set up and its a mess. To me marriage is about joining families, finances, everything.

I find it interesting that people find separate accounts for married couples so strange. DH and I have separate accounts. When I was working full time, we would split the bills down the middle and take turns paying for meals when we went out. It just worked well for us. Now that I am not working as much, we still maintain separate accounts but DH pays the vast majority of our bills. We have one joint account but we only use that for major purchases or as a savings account.

I don't think of it as my money or DH's money...it's our money. But we each have the freedom to use our money for what we want (within reason - major purchases get discussed). I much prefer it this way and really don't think that I would like to have a joint account that we would both use on a daily basis.

buggywhips · November 2011

We have waaay too many accounts. H has one he pays bills out of (that his check is direct deposited into), a joint account that we both have cards to and a savings account at one bank. I only have a card for one of the accounts but I have access to transfer money within these accounts online if I need more in my account. He also has a checking and savings through his credit union...I don't have a card for this one either. I have an account with a local bank that I've had since I was like 16 that I never closed. I hardly spend anything out of it but I deposit any extra checks into there to build it up. I call it "my super secret savings"...I have no clue how much is in there (couple hundred probably) and it's just rainy day money.

Nichole06 · November 2011

mrsfowler1016:
Exactly what you said.

Us too.

Nichole06 · November 2011

iluvmylab:

DH makes almost twice what I do, but our view is that we are married so it's all the same. We pretty much buy what we want, but always consult each other for larger purchases.

[poll]

Oops, I ment this, sorry : )

Maggie-Moo · November 2011

We have joint chequing and savings accounts which are used for all household expenses and saving up for rainy day/major household purchases respectively. We also each have our own chequing accounts where we get the same amount of money each month to do with as we want. All of our eating out comes out of this money (because it is limited, we find we spend a lot less eating out becuase we are too lazy to cook and now it is one of us treating the other one. Commitments with friends come out of the household, as it is a joint expense, nto just one of us wanting to go out). Gifts for each other and stuff to buy for ourselves (clothes, toys, etc) also come out of our allowance. We have been doing this for about 6 months now and find we are actually thinking through our purchases a lot more since we have a more limited fun budget and have saved up more than we expected for major purchases, so it works for us.

Rosie24 · November 2011

I think it's whatever works for a couple. If you have a system that works for you then ditto to pp who said "who cares?!" unless it's a situation like the arguing couple at dinner. That IS awkward.

We have joint as well as seperate accounts. He does always "pay" when we go out although we consider it both our money.

I really don't think it matter's whose name is on the account. If there are any "commitment" issues, it stems a bit deeper than that.

MrsT2008 · November 2011

1 joint checking, 2 joint savings, 2 separate major credit cards (but we are authorized users on each others cards)

MrsT2008 · November 2011

rubyjem00:
ruby soho:
Married people with separate accounts is so weird to me. My mom and stepdad have this set up and its a mess. To me marriage is about joining families, finances, everything.
I find it interesting that people find separate accounts for married couples so strange. DH and I have separate accounts. When I was working full time, we would split the bills down the middle and take turns paying for meals when we went out. It just worked well for us. Now that I am not working as much, we still maintain separate accounts but DH pays the vast majority of our bills. We have one joint account but we only use that for major purchases or as a savings account.
I don't think of it as my money or DH's money...it's our money. But we each have the freedom to use our money for what we want (within reason - major purchases get discussed). I much prefer it this way and really don't think that I would like to have a joint account that we would both use on a daily basis.

I guess it just seems like an unnecessary hassle to worry about splitting bills, deciding who pays when we go out, etc. I get that it works for people and I honestly couldn't care less what other people do, but I do think it adds another level of work (even if it is minor)

And we have joint accounts but use our money for what we want (within reason of course) - just because it all comes out of the same bucket doesn't mean we discuss every single $5 purchase.

Conky3000 · November 2011

We have separate but joint accounts. We had separate accounts coming into the relationship but they were with the same financial institution. So we made them joint. We both have access to each others' accounts, but we operate them separately. My pay goes into "my" account, his into "his" account. Our joint expenses like mortgage and utilities go through "his" account and most variable expenses like groceries, etc, go on his credit card which we then reconcile at the end of each month. We add up what's been spent each month by each of us, figure out the percentages (we contribute by percentage based on our incomes as he makes more than me) and then we do a transfer from my account to his for the amount I owe for that month.

It sounds a bit complicated when I explain it, but it's works well!

We have separate savings accounts as they were set up before we moved in together, but we have access to each others' passwords (they're online accounts). We also have separate retirement savings funds but with each other listed as beneficiaries.

emadlma · November 2011

We have been married almost a year and still have separate accounts. MH gets paid weekly and I get paid monthly so our spending habits are really different. The mortgage is in my name so I take care of that and he pays a portion plus half the bills. He still has a car payment so that takes a good portion of his money each month. We take turns with meals and grocery visits. When he gets extra money from his work (like tips on jobs), he will give me some to all of it to pay for extras (like baby stuff). It's awkward sometimes because I make more money but we make it work for us. Like a PP said, each couple does what works for them.

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