Should a married woman have a separate account?

Question

Should a married woman (or man) have a separate savings account (or investment vehicle) from any joint accounts that they may have with their spouse? I read this somewhere and I thought it was interesting. The premise of the article was that a woman needs a separate account to establish her good credit and to have money in case she needs to leave her husband. I'm just wondering what others think of this.

This applies to non-retirement accounts. I certainly think each member of a marriage should have their own, individual retirement account.

Answer 1

According to many of the experts I've listend too, Every married couple should have at LEAST 4 accounts. 1 (joint) to cover the couples expenses, another (joint) to for emergencies, savings, or fun stuff like vacations. And then, 2 sepereate accounts, one for each spouse respectively. That way, everything in the house is taken care of, and if one wants to blow his or her money, it's ok, because the stuff that effects both spouses will be protected by the 2 joint accounts. Since many marriages end over money woes, they say this is very beneficial to a happy marriage.

Answer 2

Yes and No
If you have separate accounts, you are creating a mistrust in the marriage.
The woman and man should both manage the accounts.
The husband and the wife should have the same amount of life insurance to cover expenses just in case something happen to one or the other.
Retirement account should be the same amount too.
They both should agree on opening an individual savings or investment account in case the other turned unfaithful. The amount should be the same in both account. It does not matter who makes more money. It takes a while for the court to decide who gets what.

As long as both spouse understand the logic behind it. Expert say communication and trust is the key to all marriage. You can't trust anyone too much even if it's your spouse. Run your marriage like a business and everything should be profitable. LOL

Answer 3

This is a great idea, and doesn't imply any potential weakness in the relationship.
A joint account is ideal for joint expenses, but a couple is made of two individuals, and those individuals need separate accounts, even if the accounts are very small.

For retirement accounts, especially, separate accounts are great. It's much easier to access your own funds - if the husband leaves, dies, or is incapacitated, then it's a long and sometimes difficult process for the wife to access the shared account. There may be legal or tax loopholes to jump through.

Answer 4

I think it is important for a woman to have her own credit established. That can be accomplished by being responsible with a credit card in her own name. I think our mortgage shows on my credit as well as my husband's because we have it jointly.

With regards to joint accounts, I probably have old-fashioned ideas, that I still consider sound. My husband and I have joint accounts (except for retirement accounts). Having joint accounts helps solidify our marriage commitment to each other. There is no 'his money' or 'her money'. It is all 'our money'. We decide together what to spend, how much to save, and how much to give.

When I was closing my accounts after getting married, I was surprised by the banker that tried to talk me out of it. He thought every woman should have a 'secret' account.

Answer 5

I wouldn't do it if it is going to cause a problem in the marriage and if there are no practical reasons to. However, there are several practical reasons I can think of:

One of them is as you described--if the unthinkable occurs and your spouse turns out not to be faithful or trustworthy, you might need an exit strategy. What if the spouse is a compulsive spender or gambler--you might need a rathole to help pull you out of unplanned debt or crisis.

Another possible scenario is if you must be apart for any length of time--my husband currently works out of town during the week. It's kind of impractical for us to both be writing checks/making withdrawals out of the same account if we aren't able to communicate about every little detail--otherwise we might have accidental overdrafts or something. I have a separate account that is basically what my mom used to call "pin money" for taking care of small expenses during the week that come up while he is out of town. I could go get cash from his account in a pinch, but I wouldn't do that without contacting him first. I could use credit/debit cards for most of it, but there's always that unexpected lunch money or picture money or whatever check to the school you hadn't planned on.

What if something else happened to your spouse and he/she was disabled or deceased unexpectedly? Would the joint account funds be tied up with probate or other heirs, or would you have to wait for insurance funds? Would you be able to make it in the meantime? The separate account could be just the emergency buffer to get your through a crisis like this.

There are probably other scenarios I didn't think of, but these are enough to convince me that it's a smart idea in our case. It's really not an issue of trust or unity--it is being practical and considerate! However, as I said, each couple must come to the solution that works for them; there's no one right way to handle it.

Answer 6

I think it best to have both individual and joint accounts.

While property in most states is community property if a divorce were to ever occur, having individual accounts helps some couples from fighting over money.

My husband has an account in his own name since before we married 7 years ago, and I do not have access to it. We also each have our own 401k/retirement accounts and we have a joint checking account. I additionally have joint credit accounts and individual accounts. This lets us both spend and gives us both credit.

Answer 7

Absolutely! There are times when a spouse must have some independency and having a separate bank account is one way to ensure that. If you have a job, making money, and your spouse works making his or her own money then you both should have private accounts.

Answer 8

Absolutely separate accounts. My parents who are now in their 80's are from a generation that my mother was a homemaker my dad the bread winner and total head of household. I took my mom to purchase a new living rm set, she filled out the paper work for 5 months financing and when checking her credit history SHE DIDN'T EXIST! She was almost denied for not having any credit history what so ever at 84 years of age! Everything ever purchased was in my father's name including his ss# and that goes for their bank accts also.

My husband and I have separate accts as well as a joint acct for our shared household expenses and this works so well for us.

Answer 9

A separate account means a credit card account to establish credit in your own name. A bank account won't do that.

Answer 10

Yes, always have your secret account in case of an emergency. I'm sure a man has his.