Two Income Couples - How do you handle finances?

[dcc5300]

We use 4 different acocunts. We have a shared Savings and a shared Checking. All money goes in there checking account for bills. We then put left over money into our savings account. Each month, we transfer personal allowance to our own accounts for spending.

[happysmileylady]

Joint accounts all the way. Everything goes into the checking, I handle all the finances, do the budgeting, pay the bills and such. DH and I each get an equal "allowance" of cash out of the joint account each week for our own spending money to cover things like lunch out at work, books, magazines etc for ourselves.

[rodaniel]

Y'know, I'm good with saying, "Whatever works for you."

But, by the same token, I'm always a bit amazed by married couples who don't have everything in joint accounts. I've often said - and truly believe - if you can't trust your spouse with your money, you've got much bigger problems headed your way than finances. I don't mean to be all judgemental, it's just that I'm amazed that people would consider sharing their lives with someone they won't share their money with. Money is fleeting...

All that said, my wife & I do have everything in joint accounts. She's the financial guru, but I do try to play a part in routine bill-paying and such. But we've migrated so much of what we used to do manually over to electronic payments, there's really not a lot to do each month other than to write a couple of checks to local utilities (city water & sewage and gas) that aren't setup to accept electronic payments yet.

[Dani]

Originally Posted by rodaniel

...

But, by the same token, I'm always a bit amazed by married couples who don't have everything in joint accounts. I've often said - and truly believe - if you can't trust your spouse with your money, you've got much bigger problems headed your way than finances. I don't mean to be all judgemental, it's just that I'm amazed that people would consider sharing their lives with someone they won't share their money with. Money is fleeting...

For some people, separate accounts is just easier. When my husband was in the military and would call me from Japan, I didn't want our conversations to be about what was going to clear the account from the grocery store, gas, etc. and then hear his rundown of what he'd spent. Statements come to the house or our emails, so it's not like we're living secretive lives. Even today, I love having separate "fun money" accounts. For us, it wasn't about a lack of trust, but rather convenience and also being able to surprise one another with gifts.

One commonality I see on these threads is that someone in the marriage is the primary person in charge. If you both spend freely out of the same account for daily expenses, you need a much bigger cushion.

[rodaniel]

Originally Posted by Dani

For some people, separate accounts is just easier. ... For us, it wasn't about a lack of trust, but rather convenience and also being able to surprise one another with gifts.

Dani, well sheesh, that does make sense. I hadn't considered the "keeping separate accounts" issue from that angle. And you're right in that surprise gfts are a bit trickier when you're working out of a shared pool of money.

For us, we use a joint Citi Mastercard credit card (we each do have our own physical card) for nearly everything during the month so we can collect the cash-back dividends. (We always pay off the full balance at the end of each month!) This ensures that we aren't both trying to write checks or use debit cards that'd be drawing from one account, which could certainly cause some grief.

[Megan]

Originally Posted by Dani

Even today, I love having separate "fun money" accounts. For us, it wasn't about a lack of trust, but rather convenience and also being able to surprise one another with gifts.

I know a lot of people like this. My dad used to complain that he didn't like that Mom always knew what he spent on her for Christmas. Not that it mattered, of course, it just bothered him. Additionally, I have two friends who are the working parent in single income households, and they talk about how they sometimes feel guilty spending money on themselves because it feels like they're taking it away from the family. Getting a small "allowance" of money they can use for whatever makes things easier for them. They can pick up a new book or go out to lunch without feeling like they're taking from the family or blowing the budget.

It's interesting to see how different people make things work, that's for sure!

[Dani]

Originally Posted by rodaniel

For us, we use a joint Citi Mastercard credit card (we each do have our own physical card) for nearly everything during the month so we can collect the cash-back dividends. (We always pay off the full balance at the end of each month!) This ensures that we aren't both trying to write checks or use debit cards that'd be drawing from one account, which could certainly cause some grief.

I WISH my spouse was disciplined enough to use such a card responsibly! That is a great plan; we tried it and he went a little too crazy with the AMEX each month.

[mydebtquest]

We used to share a checking account for living expenses through the week, with a second joint checking account for the bills. It became a hassle with us both drawing from the same account, though, to keep track of the balance and avoid any accidents. The balance tended to stay low as we transferred all of the extra money to savings as soon as our paychecks posted.

Now, we have the joint checking account for the bills and all of the household expenses, and we each work off our separate checking account for lunches and such through the week. We each budget our separate accounts for personal expenses like clothes. It works well for us.

[justfish]

Seperate accounts here. She takes utilities and I take the mortgage. This way there is no turmoil month to month. Not that there would be but it's worked so far so why change it?

[MMarquit]

It can work either way, as long as you both agree on how things work, and you communicate clearly.

We have all of our money pooled. There is definitely an "ours" feeling in the marriage. I do have a separate business account, since I work from home, but all of that is later deposited into the household account, and we have a savings account that we put money into as well. But we treat all of the income as shared community assets. And we've found that the spending on our "wants" pretty much evens out. And it makes things easier when it comes to paying for our son's stuff.