My fiancee and I have a joint account and have ever since we bought our house together last year. I think it all comes down to trust.
Hooker, I don't intend for this to be mean at all, but sticking your heads in the sand will not help you financially. If you and your wife can get on the same page and have a plan (yes, the "B" word... Budget!) you can make your money work for you, not vice-versa. Communication is the key. How wonderful would it be to have your finances be a source of strength in your marriage, not a source of conflict like in many. I'd strongly suggest reading one of Dave Ramsey's books (Financial Peace, Total Money Makeover). Nothing fancy, nothing revolutionary, a definite K.I.S.S. approach. Changed our marriage. I have a couple extra copies and I'll send you one if you are interested. (PM me if you are).
Oh we intend to be on a budget. We still intend to pay the bills and any shared expenses and savings together, but our plan is to split whatever is leftover equally to each other so we can do with that money as we please. At least that is the plan as of right now...
yup, my wife is a bookkeeper by trade so she has a natural ability to do this, plus she stays at home now anyway so... I still keep my eyes on whats going on, but she writes the checks...
Then I guess it really doesn't matter one way or the other. Our accounts are all joint. We (mainly my wife) track it all so we know what we can spend. Of course, the left over $$ we usually just get as cash, but its not hard to track the $20-50 I use:D. Hunting is worked into our monthly budget, so that's taken care of.
I got married a few weeks before I turned 30... we consolidated our accounts over the course of about the first 1.5yrs of our marriage... for me, prior to being married and etc my bills were simple, I basically had none, my brother had a townhouse we shared and I split the mtg with him and I had one credit card, a cell phone, and one student loan payment... it was easy, took me about 5 mins to pay all my bills each month... after wife and I bought our own house (about 3-4 months prior to getting married) things began to get MUCH more complicated and more of a PITA, so we started consolidating our accounts and stuff... made things so much easier to keep track of instead of "ok, you pay this one, I'll pay this one, but we've gotta split this one, yadda yadda" crap...
I was 23, she was 21 when married, joint accounts from day one. My first career was accountant - so I naturally handled all the finances/bills/etc and still do. Keep it simple - only debt should be for house, a car, and/or other real estate (land/rentals/etc). Happiness comes before Money! Of course I haven't bought a bow since 2000, or a gun since '95...
We've been married right over a year (she was 21 I was 23), she pays the bills. We put all our money into a joint account. In all honesty, she's more responsible than me. I'm quite forgetful and she keeps up with everything therefor I let her take care of it A professor made us read this in college. Total Money Makeover changed my life, seriously. I gave a copy to my Dad and he read it. He's been debt free for over a year and he had a ton of debt (houses, vehicles, etc). I strongly suggest everyone read it, JMO
We were both 23 when we married and we put all our money together the week after we were married. Been going fine ever since.
We always threw it into one pot. The only thing we had separate was our IRA's, KEOGH's, and those things. My buddy and his wife EACH have a separate account. He buys and sells old radios and tubes as a hobby. He has a separate account for that. I won't tell you how big it is, but he's bought 2 cars, a big diamond for his wife, made a big down payment on a $100,000 motor home and all that from his radio account. His wife just always has wanted "HER" personnal cash account. She keeps about 30 grand in it. It's like her security blanket. The rest they put in one. With my wife and I we were each others security blanket and dumped it all in one. I've had the same bank account number since about 1981. The same check book... and the numbers sequence is approaching a magical number. I bet they would have recycled me already except I pay most bills online and have for years. LOL I never felt a need to hide anything from my bride.
Hey Hooker... do yourselves a big favor. Before you split what's left over and make it play money... put the max you can in IRA's, 401s and all that. You can each have your own of those. At your ages..... they'll be worth a lot of money down the road that you'll be glad you have. If you have an employer that matches contributions... load up on that. It's free money. If you have a pre tax retirement account at your employers.... load it up. Yes you have to have some play money... but start from the beginning putting some away.... EVERY Payday.
Some of the best advice I've heard. Esp the employer match thing. Anyone whose employer matches (usually up to a certain percent) what they put in that doesn't take full advantage of it, is doing themselves an injustice. It comes out to like 1500 dollars per year or something like that for me, just for putting money away. Good post dmil.
Got married at age 22. 20 years ago this summer. We both have our own checking accounts and also have some joint accounts. Davidmil's advice about saving is spot on. Start at the very beginning and it will never seem difficult. It does not take a huge amount every month if you start early. Increase the amount as you can and you wont be working into your old age. Monthly saving also dollar cost averages you into the market. Good luck.
I got married at 27. Who says you have to let your wife do the bills. She'd probably appreciate NOT having the job. Today with all the online banking, money programs and everything... bills are about a 10 minute job once a month.
