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Since the day we got married, everything has been in joint accounts except retirement accounts which can’t be joint.
No impact to credit to go fully joint. I know because my wife’s is way better than mine and I didn’t benefit and she didn’t get hurt haha. We have joint checking/savings, multiple dual credit cards, joint 529’s, etc.
36M - 11 years married, we still keep finances separate.
Same about a 66% split on house bills and family goals (vacation, retieement, savings, etc)
Everything else, we have autonomy on what to spend the remainder.
We’ve done it similarly through about 6 years of dating and then 10 years of marriage and haven’t had an argument about money in all that time.
Spouse covers X% of bills and saves X% of our annual target based on their X% of HHI, and I do the same. The rest is our personal money to do whatever we want with.
We evaluate how equitable things are a couple times a year in case adjustments need to be made. We are both very responsible with money so YMMV.
Quick question. If you spend more as you earn more, does you spouse manage more work at home and with kids? Or do you split chores equally?
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If you plan to consolidate eventually it doesn't really matter. Until then anything between 50/50 and proportional is reasonable for shared expenses.
Use the Honeydue app.
YNAB also has couple capabilities and helpful articles on how to track based on how y’all split - separate, all joint, a mix.
Similar situation. We have one joint checking account, co-own the house and everything else is separate. I pay the mortgage and day care expenses, they pay the rest. At the end of the day , the we are each spending proportional to our income. We have never really talked at length about who should pay what - we kind of fell into this pattern over time. I am quite happy to pay more since I have the higher income.
Yeah we just naturally fell into this and it’s worked well for the most part. Every now and then we need to have a chat, but those are far and few in between.
In our 30s as well. Everything that can be combined has been combined since we got married
We have everything joint with the logic that we’re a team for both of our earnings and expenses.
Husband and I make almost the same amt and converted to all shared accounts when we got married. We each have one solo credit card but put 99% of expenses on a shared card and all income into shared checking and savings.
We still have our old accounts and use that as our primary checking and savings each. But only keep a me-money fund of $1000/month in there for our own spending. Everything else goes into a joint savings for the home, or investments. The me-money comes from our individual salaries to ourselves monthly whether we spend it or not, and it's ours to use as we please. We naturally discuss everything, so nothing is really a surprise, but it's nice to have some cash specifically allocated to personal joy.
We do ours the same as you. Got married in our mid/late 30s. Separate finances. Split most household expenses by income. We’re both fiscally responsible, so socking away money into savings and retirement is a priority.
Everything else is discretionary. We enjoy doing things together, so one person buys tickets and one person buys dinner. If we have a trip, one of us writes the other a check for whatever seems fair. We treat the money as “ours” so large expenditures or investments are discussed.
We also manage finances at a different level of detail - my partner can tell you how much is in their accounts to within 100 bucks / I just know I have XX to spend - so this helps it so we don’t drive each other crazy. It’s not a competition. Honestly, if this system works for you, I wouldn’t try to overcomplicate it.
You know what? I don’t. If we’ve found a system that works for us, and we communicate about all our assets and how we’re using them… why do you care? All I’m trying to say is that each couple needs to find something that suits them.
You sound like you have some trust issues. I have none.
My spouse and I have always put a predetermined percentage (usually 70%) of our respective incomes into our joint accounts. This is used for mortgage, shared bills, joint savings, entertainment, etc. The remaining 30% of each one’s paycheck is their own, which takes care of personal bills, investments, splurges, etc. A lot of our friends have adopted our scheme and like it.
My wife and I have combined everything. I think that’s the way to go because then there’s no worries about loss of jobs, who pays when we go out, etc. All our financial goals are goals we share together.
What’s the reason for keeping finances separate? I feel like there’s all kinds of potential pitfalls for your relationship with that financial setup.
Joint everything. Did you marry based on future performance outlooks? 🤣
My wife and I are both 29 married for 5 years, 2 kids, both work (she’s an attorney; I do tax) and make roughly equivalent incomes. We treat our finances as if we’re a business with legal services revenue and tax services revenue. In other words, there’s no mine and hers. It’s all just for the business/family. We each get some discretionary/no questions asked money so that we have a little bit of freedom. We also allocate investment and charitable decisions proportionally. So if legal services provides 52% of revenue and we invest/donate $100, she gets to decide where $52 goes and I decide on the other $48.
We’re all joint everything since day 1. I don’t see any other way.