How To Manage Accounts For Marriage

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Mutual funds/stock ownership in a taxable account

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We kept those separate but also have a joint brokerage account

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Checking

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one checking joint, both paychecks direct deposit

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Savings

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one saving joint but it's rarely used, we use etrade account as savings

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Credit Cards

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several and we use them based on point programs, we both have cards on all accounts

We tried a few different ways when first married, what works for one couple may not work for the next.


My wife also manages all our finances, I don't even know how much money I make or how to log into our checking account

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Mutual funds/stock ownership in a taxable account

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separate

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Checking
Savings
Credit Cards

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these are all shared

We give each other a monthly cash "allowance" for our personal spending.

This has worked great for us.

we each have individ checking to receive paychecks, plus a joint account for household expenses. individ savings, too, plus a joint savings (online only higher interest rate acct)

too many couples leave all the financial details to one party. this is a recipe for disaster in case of illness, death, accident, etc. you should be sharing info and decisionmaking, even if one party shoulders the week to week task of money mgmt. in my line of work, i see many surviving spouses who have absolutely no clue how much it costs to maintain their lifestyles, as they've been shielded from money matters throughout their adult lives. this sets them up for great anxiety in their so-called 'golden years'.

i've heard many a widow lamenting her non-involvement...when she realizes that her investments have underperformed for years (managed by hubby's near-incompetent golf buddy) or that spending was out of line with income but she wasn't privy to hubby's true P&L picture...or simply that she's faced with a steep learning curve at a difficult time in life.

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too many couples leave all the financial details to one party.

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I personally am trying to avoid this route, although I certainly can see how easy it is to get in such a situation.

Thanks to everyone for the responses so far. Just from what has been posted, different things certainly work for different couples. A lot of good information to work off of nonetheless

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we each have individ checking to receive paychecks, plus a joint account for household expenses. individ savings, too, plus a joint savings (online only higher interest rate acct

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Same here we both make a deposit in the joint account every month that more than covers all bills and roll the leftovers to a joint savings account. No money arguments or worrying about what the other spends. Works for us.

Do you both have the same spending habits?

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we each have individ checking to receive paychecks, plus a joint account for household expenses.

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Ditto.
Works for us.

We basically determined how much we wanted to put cumulatively in the joint account monthly and used a %.

e.g. We want to put $1k in the Joint account each month. I make 75k she makes 25k so I put $750 of the $1k we need in the joint account monthly. It's all direct deposited, so it is effortless. We built in a cushion that acts as a savings too.

I initially made considerably more than she did, but she's trying to catch up and the % never changed .

I believe people put too much thought in to the meaning of a joint account. In the past when we had to write checks to pay bills and deposit pay checks, couples having separate accounts could make the whole process more cumbersome and problematic. The ease at which you can pay bills and transfer money between accounts now makes having multiple accounts very easy and IMO creates less money tension. She doesn't get mad at me when I spend way too much money on a fishing/hunting/golfing/etc weekend at the bar or restaurant or wherever. And I don't get mad at her for spending too much shopping for whatever it is she shops for. We each have our own money.

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How do you decide how much each of you contribute to joint account? Say one makes a lot more than the other? My wife doesn't work so it would be great for me to do it that way

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Sure, you can be completely linear and contribute to the household joint account based on earnings, but there are plenty of intangibles to consider. One spouse may be shouldering more of the housework or home maintenance, or errands. Don't those activities have a value? You'd have to pay someone to do that stuff if the spouse with more free time didn't handle it. Talk about it...you'll figure out what feels fair to both of you.

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Everything is in my name, and I pay the bills. She has an AMEX and Visa tied to my accounts. She wouldn't know how to check our finances or pay the bills if she tried. She has a chase checking account that is seperate. When she needs cash I quickpay her the money.

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This doesn't seem like a good system. Your wife would basically be fricked if you died unexpectedly.