Do you have a joint account or do you keep your money separate?

Question

I'm just interested because of the high rate of divorce. It would make sense for people to protect themselves and keep their own money, yet optimists (myself included) have melded everything into one, which will just make things even more messy if we ever decide to call it quits.

Answer 1

Defiantly, separate accounts, but a joint only for paying monthly bills. That way you can have a nest egg just in case you can not trust him with the spending. My husband is the spender in the family so I have to make sure that the bills get paid and that he does not go overboard on the spending. Being the money manager is not easy, but considering we have been out of work for five months now and still manage to pay all the bills on time without having to use a credit card is priceless. If both of you can be good money mangers and have two different nest eggs that is much better than having to rely on one in a pinch.

Answer 2

I truely believe that for a marriage to work, it should be a union... that includes money also. However, I am a realist too. This is a solution I have seen that tends to work... It is also what Ive done this time around. (YEs, I am divorced and I got burned BADLY with $$ last marriage.)
A joint account that mosst of both of your checks go into. Bills, groceries, etc come out of this account.
Seperate checking accounts that your "gas" allowance/budget money goes into... by gas, I mean the $$ you spend individually each month for gas, work lunch, etc--you each have your own accts, own cards, own budgets, etc.
Seperate Savings accounts--maybe one of you holds the "christmas" & "retirement" accounts..., while the other holds the "emergencies" & "vacation" accounts...

That way... for the most part, your $$ is shared... however, if there IS a divorce, the savings is already pretty much equally split up.

Also, if you use three seperate banks, if a natural disaster happens, such as hurricane Katrina did, you have 3 possible sources of $$, not one. When Katrina hit here, I could not access my primary checkign account for over a month. It was at a small credit union for teachers and BOTH branches had SEVERE damage. The only account I had access to was my savings.

Answer 3

We have separate accounts with full access to each other's account. We have no problem sharing our money. That's not the point. What works for one couple may not work for others.

I give him a percentage of my account and he pays all the bills. We each have a little left over for whatever we want.

We used to have a joint one, but we were always questioning each others' petty spending, and my dh wanted to move to another bank and i didn't want to go. Eventually we both moved to the same bank with different accounts.

We like to have separate accounts to buy our own stuff with what is left after paying the bills.

Answer 4

My husband and i have a joint account. We feel that we share everything 50/50 and this is how it should be as we are married. I definitely dont plan on ever giving up my marriage or calling it quits. The word divorce is not in our marriage dictionary.

Answer 5

It's not healthy that your thinking about what happens if you decide to call it quits. To me, that means you have decided whether or not your committed. If your committed, then don't worry about what would be best if you get divorced, worry about what is best for your future as a married couple...

Believe me, there is nothing you can do to stop a divorce from being messy if it ends in divorce. There is no such thing as an unmessy divorce.

Answer 6

My husband and I tried doing the joint account thing and it just didnt work out. I'm a saver and he's a spender. Now we have our own accounts and it works out much better. I would suggest doing separate accounts at first and if you really trust him wih your money and think he won't blow it do the joint accounts. It all depends on how your mate handles their money. Money is the number one argument in a marriage and it can really put a damper on things if you are fighting over who spent what.

Answer 7

We have a joint account. It's part of being a family, part of sharing risks and rewards, and comes out of trust.

When we were dating and engaged, we had separate accounts and we had to decide how we were going to split expenses.

The craziest thing I heard when I was in high-school and had a buddy who's father gave his mother an "allowance." She had to buy food, groceries, gas, etc out of that allowance. I'm a guy and still that's pretty damn degrading for the woman.

Answer 8

It's just easier to have separate accounts for accounting purposes. Nothing to do with divorce or what have you. It's about knowing what you have and how much of it is being spent. If two people are dipping in the same account, then you have to balance the books EVERY NIGHT...sorry, not my idea of foreplay.

Answer 9

My wife and I have both, We each have our own accounts then we have one joint checking account. We put 25% each from our paychecks into the joint account and that account is used to pay bills or for home upkeep like if we need a appliance, home repair etc.... We buy each other presents like for Christmas or Bday's from our own personal accounts.

Answer 10

we have a joint account to pay mortgage. and we pay other stuff like bills, grocery from each other's account. I think if you have separate account and divorce, all asset and debt is shared still. I assumed. if you really like to protect money, you should have a account with other's account or out of country like my friend does.