Budgeting in a marriage, which works best?

Question

Out of these 3 methods, which do you think works best?
Each has thier own account and responsible for half the bills.
Each has thier own account and there is a common account too.
One common account.

Answer 1

For my husband and I, we have a joint account. All the bills are paid from this account. All of our accounts are joint. You have to figure out what works best for you. I recommend checking out www.suzeorman.com. She has LOTS of great advice for married couples! Another thing that I have heard works well is a joint account, then two separate accounts that you each give yourself an allowance to. For example, so that you can purchase gifts or get haircuts, etc. This allowance is your disposable income, to spend as you like so that there isn't any arguing about why she spent $50 on a pedicure or why you spent $100 on golf! :)

Answer 2

Each have their own account with equal responsibility of the bills. Also add to that a common savings account which requires both signatures for withdrawal. That way there are no surprises.

Answer 3

Unless you make the same amount of money, it's unfair to the person that makes less and pay half of everything.

so have two joint accounts, saving and checking. this way both people know where the money go and how much you both have without guessing how much the other person have.

if you own a sole-ownership bussiness, have a third account and everything else you own to the person that's not owning the business, this way if you ever lost business, the money wouldn't get liquidated too.

Answer 4

It really depends on what fits you personally and what your situation is.

With my wife, we share one bank account and I pay all the bills (I'm in charge of this job) because my wife would rather not have this job. It works out great for us! For you, though, this may not work as well, or maybe it will.

The benefit of having separate accounts is that if either of you has bad credit or has trouble with managing money, the other spouse can use his/her good credit to apply for loans. Also, separate accounts keeps the spender from spending too much money!

Answer 5

Each has thier own account and there is a common account too.
The common account is for expences ( involving both or family )
Own account is for personal expences. ( involving that person only )

Answer 6

Each has their own account and then a joint account.
For me and my fiance, we each have our own and a joint account.
We take the total amount of all of our joint expenses (some we have to estimate) and then we take that total number and divide that by 2. That is what we each have to pay monthly. He gives me his half to deposit with my half to deposit in the joint account. Our own accounts are for our own personal bills like clothing, cc's, etc.
Works out pretty well.

Answer 7

One common account unless you can't trust your partner. If not why marry. Marriage is a partnership and you should do things together.

Answer 8

Whichever of the three are chosen, again, I hope there is
enough money to buy dictionaries and add SpellChecker software.

Answer 9

The second one works best for my husband and I

Answer 10

#1 works for my wife and I.