Two Income Couples - How do you handle finances?

[KelR1]

Our finances are completely merged. We've had joint accounts since we moved in together and got engaged. It works well for us. We're very open and honest about money and though I handle the actual act of bill-paying we discuss and share everything.

[jkuo13]

We keep separate accounts, but try to split our common household expenses as close to 50/50 as possible. We just track our expenses with wesabe, and then every couple of months, put our laptops side by side and compare our expenses. If one person has been paying significantly more, an e-check gets sent to rebalance our common expense contributions. We've toyed with the idea of a common household expenses account, but I think we're too lazy to set up another bank account.

[Ginger]

I manage it ALL! He really doesnt remember to do certain things and therefore I check the accounts and make sure we are were we need to be and he is ok with that..

[Xin Lu]

we have a joint checkings and joint vanguard account. Each month my check gets deposited into the joint vanguard money market and then we spend most of his check. Then we deposit whatever we saved off his check into the joint money market, too. I make a little bit more money than the hubby so this way I'm sure we're saving 50 to 60%. We both have our own credit cards and we are authorized users on each other's cards and we check all of our accounts through Bank of America's Bill Pay and My Portfolio features. So I would say our finances are mostly merged.

[VaranusK]

As other said, we have separated bank accounts and one in common where we transfer monthly the same quantity, and all house payments go there (food, renting, telephone, etc). I used it before and feel confortable that way.
I tend to save as much as I can so if she wants to spend X on whatever she wants, I don't really care...

[Julie Rains]

My husband and I have had joint accounts since we were married. Before we got married, I read a book called something like Money, Sex, and Couples that examined the relationship between, well, money and relationships -- how more money can sometimes mean more power, so I thought it made sense to have everything together. Over the years, though, we've had to keep separate investment, 401k, etc. accounts.

It sounds like everyone here has a great system -- I know some couples where one person would pay the mortgage, thinking that was a huge deal, and the other person would pay everything else -- which didn't seem like much but groceries, utilities, etc. really add up and can end up being more than the mortgage.

At some point fairly early in our marriage, we set an amount that we needed to ask the other person about before we spent anything -- $500 was our number.

[purplefdu]

We both contribute 70% of our pay (or more) to the joint account. The remaining is split between our personal savings and checking and his IRA. He pays the cable and car insurance from his checking, I pay the cell phones from mine. Its only an issue when one of us is out of work, such as now. Then its tight and we shuffle stuff back and forth, but thats ok as its all at the same bank and we can do so online immediately.

[Dani]

We share the big accounts, but each have a private one to deposit regular "fun money" payments into. We each have a fun budget, and they are equal regardless of who is earning more at the moment. The rule is basically that I can't nag if his goes to car parts and vice versa on my facials. How do you secretively save for and buy gifts if your partner can see everything? I don't want to hundreds of dollars sitting in my purse or closet before his birthday, etc., so for us it works to keep our fun money separate.

[gtwise]

We have one checking account that both our salaries go into. We also have shared on-line high yield savings account and CDs. I have my 401(k) at my company and my wife has hers at her company. They have different amounts in them but we treat everything as ours not his or hers. Same goes for all our debt obligations. We never had separate finances, when we moved in together in college we added my wife to my checking account and that was that.

[cashprior]

We do the same thing, each has separate accounts.