Comments on: Should Married Couples Combine Finances?

By: TheFOX

TheFOX — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:11:23 +0000

My husband & I —- not Me and my husband.

By: Eirc

Eirc — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:36:35 +0000

My wife and I do the same as well. We have 3 accounts. The majority of our money goes into one to pay all the bills out of. Then I have one for spending money and she has one for spending money. That way, we don’t have to ASK if it’s okay if we buy a pair of shoes, or a CD or whatever.

The only downside is, if I use my spending money on her, or vice versa, sometimes it feels like the other person should pay it back. I don’t like that, but I still think it is better than having to ASK if it’s okay to buy something. Of course, this is only assuming you have the money in the first place. If money is too tight, or you just flat out don’t have it, then you shouldn’t be spending anything.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:52:59 +0000

I just got engaged a month ago, and we have worked to join all of our accounts since then. We have been dating for several years, and living together for one, so we both feel pretty comfortable about this. I also wrote an article on eHow about how to do this (see link above). Have fun, and good luck!

By: GZTE

GZTE — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 17:46:25 +0000

I think your husband is being selfish and has a n issue with trust. I don’t you’re unreasonable. I don’t think he should exclude you from his finances, but wants to start a business with you. Why would he want to start a business with youwhile refusing to share anything else

By: MizT

MizT — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:23:07 +0000

If you earn “the lion’s share” of the money, and you just feel especially generous, then by all means, you should share. But I am going to tell you that I have supported a man who wouldn’t work, had my credit tied to a non-bill-payer, and had to fork over half of everything I owned in a divorce. Trust has absolutely nothing to do with it. It’s all about covering your ass-ets should something go terribly wrong. This woman learned the hard way.

By: bec

bec — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 22:27:19 +0000

My husband and I have separate checking accounts but joint savings, and we both can access all the accounts if need be. We also don’t split everything 50/50, but according to our income which works out to be 60/40. It might seem a little anal, but it has worked out fine so far.

By: Marty

Marty — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:56:05 +0000

I agree that sometimes a couple has a different way of looking at money and so that is why it is best to keep separate accounts. I am the meticulous one here and she sometimes has financial crisis’ that I don’t want to affect me. When it is time to pay the bills, we get together and pay them out of our own accounts and get the bills paid.

By: Marty

Marty — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:48:30 +0000

You may be the minority, but that makes me one too. I prefer to keep the money cut and dry and share bills so no one has any confusion over things.

By: Martin777

Martin777 — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 14:17:43 +0000

My wife and I have been together for 7 years, married 5 of those years… We have ALWAYS kept the money separate.

My wife and I both have college degrees, we went to the same college and that’s were we met. My wife is a smart, intelligent woman who is JUST AS CAPABLE of earning a living as I am. There is absolutely no reason for me to “pay for everything” just because I’m the male.

There have been times when I my wife was earning MORE than I make. She has her own account where her paycheck is deposited and she has her own credit cards and CREDIT HISTORY separate from mine.

We share ALL the bills and household expenses by each paying 1/2 of the cost. This includes Food, dining out, vacations, etc. I’ll write her a check or she writes me one depending on who’s paying the bill that month.

Now, If I want to go out and buy a new car, I do so with MY MONEY and the car becomes MY responsibility. The same goes for my wife who has her money and her FREEDOM to do whatever she likes. If I choose to sell the car, then I do so and put the money back into my account.

The key here is we love each other, and share a life together but we each have our own Identity and our own carriers and success within the marriage.

You people need to get with MODERN TIMES, it’s 2009 not 1950. A Married couple has the right to have their OWN LIFE and Identity within the marriage.

The day’s of the Man making 110K while the woman makes 20k are over. I suppose some marriages work that way but I love being married to an intelligent woman with a mind of her own, not some hired hooker of a wife who just lives in my house and waits on me hand and foot while I “provide”.

By the way, we DON’T have kids and never plan to… I can see where having kids would make the way we handle money a problem.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 22:00:13 +0000

My husband and I have been married for only a little over a year, but have been together for about 7 years now.
In our first year of living together we tried to keep our finances seperate, though the hubby was (is!! lol) quite forgetful and wouldn’t give me the necessary funds to pay the bills as I’m the one who does it. Eventually we moved on to have joint checking/savings accounts. We have seperate credit cards that are paid monthly and one joint loan. As we’re getting on with life and making more money, there has been a coupled interest in keeping things the way they are, but to open seperate checking accounts for each of us so that we might have our own money that we are “responsible” for.
I admit that having to tell the hubby that I spent a couple dollars on a drink at a gas station is annoying, but in the current situation this is the best way to go.
He trusts my budgeting instincts and he respects my decisions when I deline a large purchase, but on the other hand we both enjoy the money that we share and there is never this “his or hers” crap. It’s ours. We both enjoy it. Most of the time it leads to us going out TOGETHER to help keep track of spending and that in itself strengthens our relationship as we usually skip the little “wants” purchases and really get some good out of our dough.
I suppose for some people they just can’t trust their spouse enough to share their earnings, but maybe that could be an indication of the state of the relationship. I always have people telling me I’m crazy for setting our finances up this way, but I’m not too worried. There were more problems when we had “his and hers” money accounts.
Whatever floats your boat, I suppose

By: International Marriage

International Marriage — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:34:41 +0000

My wife of 3 years recently asked me if it was alright if she could get a separate bank account? we currently have a total of 3 accounts, 1(check/savings) and 1 more savings we created for our 4 month old…you know, college money…baby expenses. and we try diligently to put money away in this account every single month. The 1st problem is she comes from Guatemala and has never worked a day in her life. I am the sole provider in our family, have a good job at the local hospital and do what I can to provide and make ends meet..but now I feel she wants separation of our marriage, by asking for this. I may sound old fashioned, but what happened to trust? What happened to the ideal of a union when 2 people marry? When she married me, she inherited everything about me, incl…debts, assets, etc. As for the guy named George, if you feel comfortable with the money situation and someone else taking charge of it, more power to you.

By: Deb

Deb — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 15:16:06 +0000

What do i do…i have been married for 4yrs and we have had a joint account for 5 yrs. I JUST FOUND yesterday that my husband decided to stop his paycheck for automatic and get his own personally account. Keep in mind this is a process that takes a few weeks so there was no forwarning about this and we have the majority of our bikks set on automatic payment…I went out and remved him from the joint and now in the process of canceling the bills on automatic. There is a trust issue when you must do things seperate…..

By: sage2400

sage2400 — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:12:04 +0000

Oh, you are absolutely not crazy! It was about time you divorced taht selfish brat. I cant beleive that she didnt pay a fair portion of the bills and made you pay for everything. Did she even work at all? Go find yourself a lady (who makes more or less money) who would appreciate you paying for everything.

By: mommy4

mommy4 — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 02:27:15 +0000

I feel ur pain though the same thing I though this asking for money and the more I ask i get mad So I stop asking Not to say that 3 of the boys is his so 13-8-10mos old and I pay childcare alone along with other bills working 2jobs he makes more then me in 1month alone

By: Maude

Maude — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:39:24 +0000

As on “older” couple in late, late 60’s, having been married couple times before, both widowed and both divorced…after 13 years of living together unmarried, keeping separate finances, sharing household expenses and 50/50 other expenses, we recently married. So, the good part of all this is that we have had years of experience in dealing with finances and learning how we both are with our monies. He is retired and I am semi-retired. I am pretty frugal with items for myself and household goods, but pretty generous for things for my Grandchildren and grown children. He, on other hand is the opposite. Being an independant person I prefer the one joint account for all expenses, savings, medical emergencies, vacations, etc. We have all of our incomes electronically deposited into a joint acccount, then transferring an equal amount into our individual accounts to do with as we choose with no explainations to each other. We are just new at this sharing thing with each other, but so far seems to be the best workable way for both our personalities.