Married with separate finances how to#

Each partner’s attitudes and emotional ties to money vary, and that will influence how you, as a couple, handle your finances. Married couples often ask, “How should we combine our finances?” As much as they want a simple rule of thumb, there is no one-size-fits-all answer for couples – some prefer to be married with separate finances while others prefer to be married with joint finances. There’s really no right or wrong in this.This article was originally published in CFP® Let’s make a plan.

So it just made sense to continue with it, and at the same time open up a joint account to handle the recurring and shared bills and expenses.įind out what works for you as a couple. We each already have our own savings and investment account when we started.

Conclusionįor me and my spouse, I think having separate finances just happened naturally. You don’t want to be suddenly find out that he/she is ridden with debt because of their spending habits.

Married with separate finances how to#

You have to trust that your spouse knows how to handle his/her own finances. This is even more important when you have separate finances. Is married with separate finances for you?Īs with all relationship, having an honest and open communication with your other half is the best way to start. It’s not an issue for us since we are very open with each other about how much income we make. Since you won’t know exactly how much your spouse makes, you just have to trust your spouse’s word for it. So you won’t know if your other half has any racked up a debt. Cause when you have separate finances, you won’t get visibility into each others finances. In order for this to work, we both know each others spending habits. Having separate finances is not without its cons. if we eat out, then we will usually take turns to pay individually. These will build up as our emergency household funds.Īny other expenses outside of these, e.g. Having a joint account for expenses works as we are also able to save any surplus that are not spent. We find that this is a fairer way of contributing rather than a fixed amount, so if you earn more, you contribute more. If my spouse takes home $5,000 a month, then he will contribute $750 to the joint account. If I take home $4,000 a month, then I will contribute $600 to the joint account. Both of us will contribute a % of our salary.Įxample: we agreed on contributing 15% of our salary We do it in a very logical way, which is to open up a joint account. Since both me and my spouse are working, we both share the common bills and expenses. What about shared expenses, how do we keep that separated? I don’t have to ask for permission every time I want to buy something.Īnd as a woman, it makes me feels more secure when I have my own stash of money. I love the feeling of independence that you get with spending your own money. We don’t have to have a debate on what, why and how. If I want to splurge on an expensive guitar, I can just go ahead and buy it. I’m just glad we each have our own savings account since the beginning. So now, that account is just sitting there, both of us waiting for the investment to break even and get our money out. Every investment we want to make, both of us need to agree on it, and sometimes this leads to argument and it can get exhausting over time. Because we have such different views on what and how to invest. In the beginning, we tried having joint investment account, and it was a mess. Why keep finances separate? Less argument about money matters But I do feel that this is why it is important for married couples to have separate finances.

Basically the poster found out his wife of 4 years has a secret savings account and they are getting a divorce. Recently, I came across this thread on Reddit. Posted on: November 16th, 2020 test July 1st, 2022