Financial Problems in MarriageWhen financial times are tough, it adds to the stress we deal with on a daily basis. This section is for talking about how financial problems affect our relationships and ways to cope.
Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
My husband recently opened his own account.. He said I took all his money. because I was in charge of all of the finances.. and He really didn't know how much things cost... But anyways now we have separate accounts and he is paying his portion of his bills to me when he gets paid and I pay all of the bills.. Is that normal? Do a lot of couples have separate accounts and separate the bills? This is new to me so I am not used to it. I make much less then my husband and he expects me to pay half of the bills which is more then my paychecks... and we argue a lot about it. Because I think we should have joint account because we are married.. So what I would like to know is how other couples do their finances... Please share
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
My H and I have separate accounts; we actually have three accounts. We each have a separate account for weekly money and then a main account for the bills. Both of our pay checks go into the main account. It used to be that my H took care of all the bills but now we sit down and do bills together twice a month.
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
We have a joint checking account and two saving accounts. One's joint and one is currently in his name (his has $5 in it). He's going to put me on his account, and we're going to structure one account as an emergency fund and the other with "dip-in" savings, like for Christmas shopping and the things we save up for through the year.
He brings in most of the income; my business isn't quite yet big enough to fully supplement his, but it helps some. However, I take care of paying all the bills.
I recommend Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University to help you both get fully together on your finances. It took me a long time to get past the need to have my own personal savings account. There's a lot of trust involved in sharing money.
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
I don't think it's a trust thing.
I think it's just a preference. Just because a couple doesn't share bank accounts doesn't mean they have trust issues.
I bank with a credit union. Hubs uses BofA which I despise. He won't join my bank because it's centralized about 80 miles away ( i do all banking online and at ATMs). He likes going to the bank O.o Weirdo.
We have a joint account. At the end of every month we sit and on our dry erase board calendar we map out the monthly bills and once we get paid we discuss how much we are going to save and how much our weekly budget will be.
It works well for us. I pay the bills and we both discuss any purchases over $100.
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
We have joint checking. When we first married we had separate accounts. We didn't combine accounts until after 5 years of marriage. I prefer joint checking, just because its easier for us overall, but I don't mind doing separate as long as its all fair and for the common goal.
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
We have separate accounts at the same bank, plus a joint savings account. We have online access to each other's account... so no secrets.
We've each paid more than half the amount of the bills at various times, depending on what's going on. But really, my h is an awesome money manager and helps me budget and pile up some money... which came in handy this past year as all the major appliances went out, one at a time! It was awesome to have the money to pay for new ones!
He wouldn't demand that I pay half of the bills if my check couldn't cover it....that doesn't even make sense. Either he'd throw in a higher percentage in or we'd lower the expenses!
Communication is the key. Money is tight right now, but we talk and budget, and tell what we spent where, it's all good when the communication is there.
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
My wife and I have a joint acct and both get paid on the same dates every 2 weeks we both go over the bills
She pays them on line and I write everything down and reconcile the checkbook
We both have atm cards and write things down when they occur we also have a jt savings acct
And contribute to it every 2 weeks when she was a sahm she took care of all the bills
Now we do it together we use the policy of joint agreement on anything over 100.00 actually we tell each other everything we spend just so the other person is awhere. It works for us been m 12 yrs now . Posted via Mobile Device
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
Joint account and I have a super savings account for the kids and a checking account that's mine alone.
He has access to my card that can access the other two accounts and I have no issues with it and both our cards access the joint. We have a joint (in his name mind you) "pay as you go" Visa because we don't do real credit cards because we both dislike them greatly but these days you need at least one according to consumer society.
Other than that, I pay the bills and keep track (including his like the vehicle ins, vehicle payments, etc) because I'm better at it than he is (accounting courses in college and I've done payroll for a huge company in the past).
We don't split anything, in fact, the last three years I've been carrying the larger income into the household and paying the bills with it. He makes less than a fifth of what I make and we're both okay with that.
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Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
Wife and I have had separate finances for 25+ years and only once argued about money. I make about double what she does but we pay the bills as needed, not 50/50. We both have separate checking, savings, 501K, IRAs, mutual funds and Credit Cards. We both have signature rights, PINs and passwords to all assets. Totally transparent and it works well for us. Probably the most important thing is we we are very like minded on how we spend our money and always discuss major purchases for agreement.
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
Quote:
Originally Posted by AMD
I make much less then my husband and he expects me to pay half of the bills which is more then my paychecks... and we argue a lot about it.
You need to sit down and do a household budget with your H because that logic is not right...IMHO.
The way we do it is both our paychecks goes into a joint account. We pay the bills, and other household expenses out of that. Not sure what we do with the leftover, never had any before now
Re: Would like to know how other couples do their finances....
Our checks go to the same account and she manages the finances.
Early on in our marriage it was obvious she was more responsible for our finances than I was - so I let her take charge.
Its lead to issues over the years, since shes more frugal than me, she gets annoyed that I don't find the best deal before a purchase - like she does. I get irritated that she haggles with me over every purchase she doesn't approve of - and bigger purchases are a no-go until she says yes. Its gotten better over the years, I try and be more budget-conscious and she tries to not get on my case over every buy (even though we do backslide at times).
However, considering our earnings, our finances are in good order.
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Would like to know how other couples do their finances.... 
