Comments on: Do You and Your Spouse Maintain Joint Bank Accounts?

By: Pinky

Pinky — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:01:00 +0000

My husband and I keep all the money in the joint account. He will deposit most of his paycheck into the account and keep a small portion for allowance. If we need to purchase anything for the household or any big items, we will use the money in the joint account. If he wants to buy something for himself such as games, coffee, etc, he will use his allowance money. I do the same as him as well. I think this work out very good.

By: clwtrsunset

clwtrsunset — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 09:45:00 +0000

My marriage of almost 2 decades recently ended. We always had joint accounts and did not fight over money. As a previous poster mentioned, I was naive and got burned (well, I should say, am continuing to get burned). Like spaghetti mentioned, I ‘was in control’ of the account, supposedly. I will never not have my own account again regardless of my marital status.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 03:30:00 +0000

We have separate accounts. We’ve talked a little about combining but have never done it. If we combined we would probably have 3 accounts: his, mine, and ours. We are both ok with money, no debt, but I track every penny and he doesn’t write anything down. I think I would go crazy not knowing exact balances and I don’t think he wants to track everything. I’d like to save more, but we have a fully funded efund and other savings in place.

By: Bharathy

Bharathy — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 17:26:00 +0000

We have been married for 8 years now. We have separate salary accounts and one joint account which we use for expenses. At the start of the month we transfer a fixed amount into this from our salary accounts. The money from salary accounts is used for our individual investments, family obligations(My SO spends on his grandmother and parents, I sponsored my sibling’s education) etc. When we plan a major expenditure, it may be paid by anyone who is in the position to do so. This has worked for us so far. We had a baby last Oct and I havent joined back my work. We still continue with the same joint account except that I dont put in any money into it now.

By: Cindy Brick

Cindy Brick — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 23:02:00 +0000

We have two credit union accounts — one we share for everyday expenses, and one for my business. Both of us are members on each one, though Husband rarely does anything with the biz account. (He does, however, pay the bills using the regular account.) We have two more accounts for saving money for certain expenses (like property taxes), one other business account (that uses my biz name — the credit union will charge extra for this privilege), and I deposit money regularly in two accounts for retirement. (Husband has a retirement account, and so do I, for investing in stocks.)
Gosh, I don’t think about how many accounts we have until I write about them! But both of us know about the accounts, and have access mutually to all of them, though some are his name as ‘first person,’ and some are mine.
I think we do a better job covering expenses together, rather than keeping them separate and guessing how much we have in funds. (We have been married more than 27 years, by the way.)

By: Jenn

Jenn — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 21:12:00 +0000

When I was married we had everything jointly. I think I would want to do it again, provided I get married again!

By: spaghetti0625

spaghetti0625 — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:35:00 +0000

All of our accounts are joint. We have one big joint checking account at our credit union which earns 5.01%, so we took all our money out of ING and put it in here. I didn’t put any ‘savings’ into our ledger, only paychecks go in and bills out, but I keep a ledger of our EF, etc. We also have a few accounts left at ING like my grocery savings and little accounts like that. But it’s all joint.
I had an ex where we put our money together, and he was BAD with money. It ended badly and I said I’d never go joint again. However, my husband was always good with money and I figured I’d trust him if I married him, so I may as well. he relinquished control of the checkbook, so I’m the money lady. He knows never to use the debit card, only if he asks first and it’s a necessity. He will go on and check the account online but he knows about where our money goes, we’re very open and honest about it.
I think if we did it separate, we’d fight a LOT about money. Same as you, we never fight about money.

By: Gina

Gina — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:27:00 +0000

We have a joint checking account where we pay for household things – bills, groceries, etc.
We each have a seperate savings account that we use for our own things (savings for vehicles, presents, etc.)
We don’t really fight about money. We have a budget that works for us, and we’re both pretty good about sticking to it.

By: Jolie

Jolie — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 13:34:00 +0000

We have a joint account but it really is his. It was his before we got married. He added me and the cheques are in both our names but in essence it's his money that goes in and his that comes out for his bills. He has two other accounts called 'savings' but I use that term loosely.

I have 2 chequing and 2 savings accounts; a set of each at two different banks. They are not secret and he knows where the statements are should he care to look.

We argue about money. I think we would argue 10x if we shared an account.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:37:00 +0000

We have been married for almost 8 years and never got a joint account. We operate out of my husband’s as I’m now a SAHM. The day after we returned from our honeymoon, he turned over his checkbook to me and hasn’t touched it since, I’m not even sure the bank knows what his real signature looks likes or that he knows where it’s kept. Out of laziness, we’ve never added me, but I’m listed on everything else, including our money markets, savings, stocks, etc. I still maintain my account with a small balance. We do go over our finances monthly, if not more often, so there’s no hiding going on.