re: Getting Married and Managing Money

I know each and every individual situation is different and there is no "right" way to do things, but man this thread has me questioning myself a little.

I've been married almost a year now, we are both good with our money, and both make the same amount. Modest salaries, nothing crazy. We don't have any joint accounts at all, or access to each others' accounts. It's not like it was a trust thing, it was just somethign we've never really thought was important enough to act on. We each still just have our personal checkings and savings like we've had long before marriage. Our monthly bills are pretty consistent each month; I pay all of them myself and she venmos me half. Anything aside from the shared monthly bills (mortgage, HOA, cable, power, gas) is just up to our own. She buys whatever she wants and I do the same.

Apparently that's not very common though because I don't see anyone else like that, so now I'm second guessing lol. It works for us though.

My wife and I built a spreadhseet with our joint expenses & savings. We then did a weighted average calculation of our net earnings (after taxes & retirement) to determine our fair share. I make about 65% of the total income; therefore, I have enough deposited in the joint account to cover 65% of the bills & savings.

The rest remains in our individual accounts, and we spend how we want.

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Absolutely nothing wrong with this scenario except savings: you don't mention how much you're each contributing toward retirement and a joint household emergency fund

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We don't have joint retirement, or joint anythign really. Me personally, I contribute 8.5% at work and my employer matches fully up to 6.2%, also from my take-home pay I max out a Roth retirement acct through Vanguard at $5500 per year. She doens't have anythign other htan work but gives 10% which her employer matches a small percentage of. Should we have some kind of joint retirment account? I've honestly never thought about that.

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Who would pay for an extraordinary expense not part of your budget? For example, an expensive dental procedure, or a big car repair bill?

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Thsi may sound lousy but probably just whoever's issue it was. If my car needed a big repair I would just pay for it, likewise if something happened to her car.

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A savings cushion, shared by you both, can give you peace of mind.

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we both definitely save. For me, once I get paid I pay bills, put towards Roth, do other important necessary things. Anything "left over" goes to a savings through Ally that gets a decent return. And my wife does the same, whatever's left after bills goes to savings.

We definitely aren't in any danger at all of being strapped if we have a big unexpected expense, it's just that the money wouldn't come out of one central/shared account.

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Thsi may sound lousy but probably just whoever's issue it was. If my car needed a big repair I would just pay for it, likewise if something happened to her car.

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Glad you're saving for retirement. No, you don't need joint retirement accounts--just make sure that you're the beneficiary on her accounts and vice versa.

So you're both still paying your own way. What happens if you have kids? How are you gonna split the costs for that? She's gonna pay the dr bills for pregnancy, but you'll cover pediatric care? At some point, one of you is going to cost the other one money. Whether car accident, temporary job loss, big health problem, kids, etc, at some point you'll need to pull together. A shared savings pool can make this a bit easier. You don't want to resent her for needing eye surgery, or have her tell you to pay for your own damn root canal or dental implant.

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We have one joint checking account. Direct deposit of both our checks and all bills paid from it. Didn’t see a reason for multiple accounts.

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Same here.

I've only been married a month but lived together for years both of us are earners. she makes more than I do for sure but pays the rent and electricity where I handl1e cable and groceries and am in charge of the surplus.

Maintain separate bank accounts and agree that her money is her money and your money is also her money.

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I think it is more a reflection that most on this board are money centered rather than family centered.

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It seems more like two roommates trying to share expenses than a married couple. We have joint accounts, it is all "our" money regardless of who made it.

We have a similar set-up. The 4 accounts between the two of us (excluding retirement accounts) are as follows: savings, fun money, standard checking and a mortgage account where we keep just enough to cover mortgage and HOAs.