We have a joint account together that we use for things that benefit us both such as our mortgage or prior to marrying it was for expenses like trips, etc
View Quoted Comment
So if you dont mind me asking, how do you put money both on separate and joint? what percentage? Also mu fiance and I kinda have the same income but i have student loans
We keep everything separate. We got married in ours 40’s/50’s, no kids. We both contribute to household stuff... mortgage, bills, groceries. It may seem odd, but we never fight about money. 👍
We have a joint account and handle all finances jointly. We both have a credit card. We mostly use mine (bc FH has a card on the account too) and there’s better benefits with it, but we use his for amazon purchases (amazon card). But..we pay both cards out of our Joint account. We just discuss the things that are “wants” before we do it.
View Quoted Comment
For us, I make more bc I’ve been teaching longer but I have student loans. We both paid our bills separately on our own before so the way we looked at it was that it’s still “my” money paying my debt even though it’s coming from our account.
View Quoted Comment
We decide how much to put in the shared one first and then whatever is leftover goes into our individual accounts. The shared one right now is cause it pays for our mortgage and bills but prior to when we were dating we started off much smaller amounts like $100 a month each into the shared account
All the household bills are in his name. He pays for probably 2/3. I write him a check every month to cover the other third plus I buy gas and groceries. We have our own accounts and pay for stuff we want. I paid off my own debts. We don’t keep track of each other’s spending. It’s been working really well for us for over 3 years. We were going to get a joint savings account for our tax refund, but his personal savings account gets such high interest, it seemed better to just leave it in there.
We had a joint account while living together pre-marriage. We made around the same amount of money at the time, so we would have the same amount automatically deposited into the joint account each pay check. Now that we are married, he closed his individual account. I kept mine because I am now in a full time grad program, and I get paid as an adjunct, and my salary is equal to my tuition. It's just easier to have my tuition as separate so we don't have to worry about a surprise bill. Otherwise, we have added each other onto our credit cards, and we have 1 that we use for pretty much everything. If either of us are planning to make a larger purchase, we usually tell each other about it as more of a heads up like "oh, I spent x amount on this thing today." Although, any major purchases or anything over $100 that isn't a grocery bill will usually be discussed beforehand. We are both relatively frugal and have similar spending habits so it works well for us (as in, we basically spend money on eating out together and with friends, which is now at 0 cuz of covid lol and I don't wear makeup or get my nails done unless I'm going to an event). In terms of debt, we also looked at it as "ours." However, we have very little debt compared to other people we know. Every couple is different, so what works for us may not work for others. We know some couples who keep completely separate finances, and that works for them. Others are somewhere in between. Regardless of what you end up doing, discussing finances is super important. I would definitely have these exact conversations together and cover how much/what kind of debt each person has, spending habits, any spending limits that you mutually agree require prior permission, and so on.
View Quoted Comment
Well said! We just opened our joint account and that’s gonna be our main one. We plan though on giving ourselves 300$ each every month (just for expenses that we want. For example, he doesnt get the idea of paying 100$ on make up; I dont get the idea of getting video games every month neither) 😂
As for our loans, we plan on treating them as “our loan.”
View Quoted Comment
Haha yeah, having a buffer spending amount sounds like a great idea! Neither of us buy things regularly like that unless it's gas for our cars lol. He buys video games, but not often, maybe 2 a year, if that. He just plays the same games forever. With loans, the way we see it is the sooner we have less financial obligations every month, the better we will be together, so it doesn't matter who's loan it is, if we can pay it off mutually faster, it allows us to save more in the long run and/or spend on fun things rather than accumulating interest.
We each had separate accounts but added each other on them so we have access to both accounts. His pay goes to the account that was originally his, and my paycheck goes to account that was originally mine. Our shared bills (mortgage, electric, gas, water, Comcast, pet insurance, Lowe’s credit card) are in my name, so each month I take out his half and put it in my account. We use our separate accounts to pay for our vehicles, our individual credit cards, etc. and for our individual hobbies or shopping. He typically pays for our house renovations because he makes a significant bit more than me, but I try to pitch in for those things when I can. I buy groceries most often because he works out of town through the week, and he pays for date nights!
Until now, my husband has covered the mortgage and major bills and I’ve covered the food, my car and student loan payments, anything for my dog, and my miscellaneous spending. However, I’m a teacher, and my school is forcing us to go back in person and I have an autoimmune disease that weakens my immune system and we’re not willing to take that risk right now, so the plan is for me to take the year off. So now he’ll be covering everything (we’re so lucky to be able to do this!) and I feel so guilty about it! Also, my Amazon habit will have to be calmed down a little which makes me sad 😉.
We have everything separate and split everything 50/50. We use Venmo but will likely join our accounts into one in the next few years, but not a priority currently. We are buying a house right now and keeping our income separate has helped us tremendously for getting approved for a new homeowner loan!
Joint savings. Separate checking. Split everything 50/50; he pays majority of rent because he pays more and I pay the phone bill & majority of groceries
When we got engaged we opened up a joint checking and joint savings, in addition to our individual checking and savings accounts. We put the same amount into each account every month so both accounts are equally contributed to by both of us. We also have a joint credit card that we pay for with the joint checking account. We use our shared money for stuff like rent, food, utilities, our cats’ food and vet bills, other misc household expenses. If I buy clothes or something just for myself I pay for it with my own credit card and my own bank account. That’ll probably change when I have a baby and work less. But while our incomes are similar, this works.