Comments on: Are You Completely Honest About Money With Your Spouse or Significant Other?

By: One Frugal Girl

One Frugal Girl — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 01:53:00 +0000

Nathan -- We avoid looking at the credit card bill around the holidays, so we don't ruin surprises. I suppose if you have a very curious spouse or partner you could go the cash route, but it wouldn't be my first choice. I prefer to use a credit card for two reasons. First, you can dispute a credit card purchase much easier than a purchase paid with cash. Second, we earn cash rewards with every purchase.

I'm not a big fan of mixing joint and personal accounts for 'allowance' reasons. I know a couple who handles their finances this way and it always seems to get them in trouble. Sometimes the wife saves her 'allowance', but the husband spends his. On a number of occasions he's gone into debt when an unexpected bill arises because the joint account and his account are empty. In the mean time the wife has a bunch of money sitting idle in her account that could have been used to pay the bills.

You can still have an 'allowance' with a joint account. Let's say you can both spend $50 each month on whatever you want. That's fine, it just means you have to keep watch over your spending and you have to agree not to be upset with whatever that $50 is spent on.

Honestly, I just don't see the need to maintain a separate account as long as you set the ground rules for 'personal' expenses.

By: Jolie

Jolie — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 16:12:00 +0000

We each have our own accounts. We each have a portion of the bills we are responsible for. The balance of the money is ours to do with what we choose. While he doesn’t get a play by play on what I spend, all my information is there, in a file, on the dresser, for him to look at if he should wish to.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:58:00 +0000

Thanks for sharing both your thoughts on Financial Infidelity, and your own experiences with financial openness and honesty in your own relationship.

I've been thinking about the whole 'joint checking account' thing recently, and was wondering how you manage to keep anything secret from each other (i.e. gifts and presents). Avoid looking at the statements around birthday/Christmas time, or just pay in cash? I feel like this is the one thing that prevents some couples from switching to a joint-account only system.

What are your thoughts on this, or couples who keep a joint account (for household/family/joint expesnses) along with their own separate accounts for personal expenses, giving themselves an "allowance" that's transferred from the joint account?