Joint bank accounts for couples?

My wife and I have a joint account which we each direct deposit money into with each paycheck to pay the mortgage, bills ect.. But then we each have our own accounts for our own bills (we each of CCs) and our own personal money. We take turns buying groceries or it comes out of the joint account...it has worked out great for us. I don't hound her about what she spends her money on and she doesn't hound me.

With a baby on the way we are going to add more money to the joint account for obvious added expenses.

This is exactly what we do. You figure out what your monthly bills are and how much each of you owe. Then have that amount direct deposited into your joint account and all the joint bills come out of that. Works wonderful and we never fight or are stressed about money*********** well almost never :flowerforyou:

A friend of my mother's learned the hard way. SHe and her husband only had joint bank accounts. BUT the house and cars were exclusively in his name. Right before he left her he transfer the cars and home into his girlfriend's name and cleaned out the bank account. She was left broke and homeless. Upshot....everyone should have their own set of finances along with a joint account.

She must not have had a good attorney. Just because the house and cars are in his name doesn't mean that they belong soley to him when it comes to marital assets.

No. We keep our money separate. Most relationships strain when it comes to money matters and can sometimes make or break a relationship.

We keep ours separate. 100%.
As long as the bills get paid, we're good.

My fiance and I (together 8 years) are doing a joint checking acct for bills, house things, vacations together, etc. But we each also have our own checking accounts that we put 15% of our paychecks into for personal "do whatever you want with it" spending or saving. Been working great for us

Yes, we have a joint bank account... it is our home and our money... not yours and mine. I heard it said one time that not having a joint account is just planning your divorce ahead of time and that makes sense to me... while I understand some people can make it work it just wouldn't work out for us.

I've had people telling us we're going to break up since we started dating just because we don't do everything the "normal" way. I've seen all sorts of relationships fail and many others succeed. The truth is that there is no determining factor that a marriage will fail. Other than the emotional and mental effort that people put into it. Not the monitary.

We are married and living together and we have a shared account.

My wife and I have a joint account which we each direct deposit money into with each paycheck to pay the mortgage, bills ect.. But then we each have our own accounts for our own bills (we each of CCs) and our own personal money. We take turns buying groceries or it comes out of the joint account...it has worked out great for us. I don't hound her about what she spends her money on and she doesn't hound me.

With a baby on the way we are going to add more money to the joint account for obvious added expenses.

This is exactly what we do. You figure out what your monthly bills are and how much each of you owe. Then have that amount direct deposited into your joint account and all the joint bills come out of that. Works wonderful and we never fight or are stressed about money*********** well almost never :flowerforyou:

Sorry to pick on you, You are a married couple, so how do you work out how much each of you owe? You are a household, and the accounting is how much the household owes, n'est pas? Any extra money left over after the bills are paid is shared money, 50/50.

Hubby and I started dating when we were 17. We were both working at the time (so it just made sense) and got married when we were 23. We always had separate accounts too (and still do. We're 36 now).

If you both work I suggest having a joint account and two separate accounts. Same with credit cards. This way you can always buy things that will not show up on his radar (either gifts, or something for yourself). I also have a credit card I just use for work travel.

Right now we've only been dating 2.5 years, so we have separate accounts - we are discussing marriage within the next year or 2 in which case we will be doing joint accounts so either one of us can access money in an emergency - and We decided a very long time ago that I will be handling all finances as he is bad with money and loves to impulse buy and then he runs out of money and complains... so I am the planner and I will handle all finances.

Been married five years.

One joint checking account and joint savings/stocks/etc accounts. My thought truly is if you cannot trust your partner with money how can you expect to trust them with your house, children, or future? I never thought twice about it and until now it has never come up. I make about 40% more than her but that doesn't matter to me - we are a team.

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This is how my husband and I see it too!

I don't see having separate accounts (and together accounts) as a trust issue. We're together nearly 19 years now and we've always had joint checking and separate checking (direct deposit from our payrolls). My husband handles all of the bills now (we have 2 homes, and one rental property so there's a lot to handle). I used to when I was the breadwinner but he's done a great job balancing it all over the years.

I would never see a separate account as a trust issue. I travel a lot for work and it helps to have a separate account and separate credit card. I travel all over the US and it just works for us. His side business account is also separate.

I just say don't judge--you have to do what works for you!