re: Spin-off From Another Thread: Is Separate Checking Accounts For Husband And Wife…

Yea, it seems to work for us so far. We have our bills/investments/entertainment all joint and then the do whatever the frick you want account separate

Or that neither of you know how to take care of $

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I have no idea what's the norm. But my wife and I have have a joint account, as well as our own separate accounts. We use the joint to pay bills.

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This is the correct answer, quite frankly. Sometimes i want to buy something and not be honest about the cost, and sometimes she wants to do things and not answer any questions about the cost. Also, we occasionally buy things for each other that we intend to be a surprise.

My entire regular paycheck goes into our joint account which she uses to pay the house bills. Her entire paycheck goes into her separate account. She also pays some bills from that account. I have other sources of income including some per diems, reimbursements, mileage, investment income that all goes into my separate account for walking around money. She can look at any account if she wants to.

The key is not counting pennies to make sure that everyone pays an exact share of the bills. That is a formula for arguments. The key is not really caring if your wife makes financial decisions of consequence, and giving her the autonomous power to be an equal partner in the financial management. That eliminates most of the issues that lead to divorce. After all, most good divorces are over money.

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After all, most good divorces are over money.

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Such an odd sentence

Wife and I have separate accounts but both have full access to each account I pay almost all of the bills out of my account and use hers as a spending account

It works great for us. She does not like dealing with the money and I do.

Imo, the key is figuring out what you want your lifestyle to be.

People like to be cool and eat shite because someone else liked it and that should be the standard.

Life should be simple imo.

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she will just buy stupid shite sometimes. For example our daughter is moving into a one bedroom apartment this semester. She buys all this cooking shite for her and place settings for 8. Our daughter has the domestic skills of a kangaroo and you can’t even fit 8 people in this apartment.

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I have the same wife

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an equal partner in the financial management.

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This can be problematic if your spouse is a socialist and has no idea how to manage money.

Separate accounts, I’m a saver/ she’s a spender, it keeps me from losing my shite over her spending.
I pay the house note and car insurance and cable. She pays light bill and cell bill, we split the groceries.

I’m older than you OP and we’ve had separate accounts since day one. We do have a joint account for bills, but we’ve never commingled funds otherwise.