[Married People] Do you keep your finances separate from your spouse?

The wife and I combine.

I dated a girl in college who wanted the financials separate when she got married. I have no idea why that subject every came up. Anywho, the girl wanted money that was hers. Maybe she wanted to keep a boy toy on the side?

 

I voted no (as in we combine), but I do have a savings account that I don't really tell her about. This is kind of our rainy day fund, and she'd probably try to find a way to spend it.

 

Not really one or the other for me. Kinda both.

I'm not actually married yet but will be shortly, so maybe my perspective will change after a few years.

We have a joint checking account that we make equal contributions to. That pays for mortgage, home repairs, furniture, utilities, groceries, etc.

But we still have our own accounts also. She says she would feel weird about spending "our" money on all her clothes & shoe shopping. Whereas I would feel weird spending our joint money on videogames. She also only got her masters a couple years ago, and she seems to find the idea that I should pay off any of her school debt distasteful.

So having both joint and separate accounts is just what we're the most comfortable with.

 

^ This seems to be the most fair and logical option

Minimum of three accounts and no peeking!

 

We started with a joint acct and two separate personal accounts that we would put X dollars into each month. It would cap out at a certain amount. So of course, the wife just used what she could and it would replenish, while I didn't spend money if I didn't really want/need to. At that point, it seemed silly, and all our money is hers now...I mean "shared."

 

I'm not married yet, but still voted.

 

I personally prefer three accounts; One main account and then seed a 'his' and 'her' account for their own personal spending.

 

Most married couples I know have a joint savings account and separate checking accounts. That's how my wife and I were doing it, but at some point my wife decided to put all her checking account money with the same bank that has our joint savings account. She's the only one that uses that checking though so the principle is still the same.

We don't do this so we can hide things from one another (I have access to her account and she knows the password to my checking account); this is just how things naturally happened.

 

Joint bank account, and my wife has her own separate account (I have a business account that operates as my separate account).

 

[Educational Post]
My wife has no access to any financial information. I do grant her access to a checkbook and two credit cards. Under this successful strategy, I have full control over her spending and she lives under the false impression that we are running out of money. This curbs her behavior dramatically and frees up additional money for my extravagant spending and selfish indulgences. It also allows me to implement a positive/negative reinforcement system in which she is either withheld or granted financial privileges to motivate desired behaviors.


MASTER OF COIN

 

We have a shared checking account for bills and a shared savings account for combined saving. I have two personal checking accounts and a personal savings account. The wife has a checking and savings account, I think. Credit cards are in our own individual names and not connected.

We both put our set agreed upon amounts of money into the bills/savings account each paycheck. Same amount each check, regardless of the bill amounts. We haven't touched the excess in a while, so the bills account has grown to have enough "slush" to cover 4-5 months worth of bills.

Works for us.

 

We have a common checking account where her pay (minimal right now) deposits into. We pay our big bills from there. That way I can monitor her spending.

And then I have my own personal checking account (where my pay drops into) which she doesn't have access to at all. It is for my own discretionary expenses. Dropping $$ with Jim Harden at Vivid etc.

Then we have separate credit cards. She pays off her credit cards using the common checking account and I pay off mine using my checking account.

Works well for us. So far.

 

Joint checking account where we both deposit part of our paychecks into for house hold expenses. Individual checking accounts where we keep our own spending money.

Thanks for thread, I thought the fact that me and my wife having separate checking accounts were strange but it's good to see that so many on here do the same thing.

 

I buy movies and video games with her $$$

 

Every possession is joint. This has worked well for us through our entire marriage.
This might not be suited for everyone, but I do think this is the more practical scenario for most. There is something about sharing everything that makes us more accountable to one another. Once again, one size does not fit all.
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lucky her. nice life.

one of my buddies has given his rights up and wife has alerts set up. next question is 'why did you spend $77.54 a zone d erotica?'

 

For us, everything is joint, except where legally it cannot be (IRA and such) and where it's an advantage to have separate accounts (credit card signup bonus and building credits, ...). I know some folks keep their financial completely separate, including dividing up who pay for what and like it that way. I'm not sure the reasoning behind it.

 

Yep I agree with this. My wife and I combined everything and it seems odd to us to even consider having separate accounts even though we know that is more the "norm" now.

 

I can understand small, separate accounts mainly for spur of the moment purchases, gifts or things of that nature where you don't want to impact the joint account's bill responsibility. What I don't understand are separate accounts where each spouse is responsible for paying various bills. There should definitely be a joint account for that.

I also don't understand these husbands wanting to be able to 'monitor' what their wives are doing financially or having wives without access to the husbands 'fianancial situation'.