His and Her's Bank Accountsby Dale Harcombe | More from this Blogger 28 Apr 2009 03:36 PM
For most of our married life Mick and I have had a joint account. The only time that was different to that, was when I was working for one company who paid straight into a bank account and insisted I had to have a separate account for that. And I hated it. A friend recently said she felt the same when the accountant suggested she ought to have a separate account. Maybe it makes sense from a financial point of view, I don't know. But I'm concerned with the attitude that often goes along with it. It concerns me when I hear people say things like; 'It's my money. I earned it. I can do what I like with it. He (or she) has no say in how I spend my money. I'll do what I like.' Such an attitude doesn't sound like a partnership to me. It sounds more like the selfishness I talked about in the Number 1 attitude blog. Money I earn is paid into our joint account, as is Mick's regular superannuation payments or his wage was before he retired. When I want money for birthdays or for clothes or anything else, I simply take it out of our joint account, no questions asked and Mick does the same. There's no checking up on each other about why money was withdrawn or what for. I'd be really interested to hear others thoughts on this subject of his and hers bank accounts. Are you for or against it and why? Related blogs Money Strategies that Worked in Our Marriage Want to Know How to Decrease Stress? Recession Effects on Your Marriage- Your Choice Learn more about Dale Harcombe  Dale has a passion for books and writing. She writes in various forms, from articles to poetry to fiction for children and adults. Relevantmarriage tags User Comments Heidi (5269) 28 Apr 2009 05:38 PMI fully agree with you! My husband and I only have joint accounts. All money goes into those. I stay at home with our two little ones so I don't bring in an income and my wonderful husband has NEVER said anything to me about it being "his" money. He fully appreciates the work I do at home, even though there is no financial compensation! If I only got to spend "my" money I'd be in big trouble since I don't earn any! :)  Dale Harcombe (10327) 28 Apr 2009 05:50 PMThanks for your comments Heidi. Good to hear it from a younger woman's point of view. And good to hear your husband appreciates your work at home. kprice888 (5) 29 Apr 2009 08:09 AMMy husband and I have a joint savings account and a joint checking account, in addition to our own personal checking accounts. I make the more money by far but we contribute equally to the home finances and I put more money into our joint checking account. Otherwise I use my own personal account to pay for my student loans, my credit cards, car insurance and such. I don't see it as selfish but responsible for my bills. It would be a pain to have to constantly balance an account in which I am unsure of what he is spending, although truth be told he doesn't spend. I feel like he would feel guilty if he saw the money I spent on food and our daughters dance classes and other family expenses. As long as he contributes to our mortgage and house bills I am happy & so is he. AggieGal (60) 29 Apr 2009 10:07 AMI've always thought it was odd when couples didn't share their money with each other. We have a joint checking and joint savings account that we pay everything out of. My husband has been in school since we've been married, so it's taken both of our incomes to meet out needs. I don't think we could split it up and make it work. For our budget, we have set a monthly allowance so we each get the same spending money each month. There's no "I made more money this month so I should get more allowance." We also each have separate checking accounts that we had before we were married. These are accounts our parents had set up for us as kids, and they still have access to them. It's been nice to have those accounts to be able to transfer money back and forth between us and our parents. We both still have access to each others individual accounts, so we know what's going on. My husband uses his for money that he is saving for larger purchases so that he doesn't just have cash lying around (because he'll spend it), and so it's not just coming out of our savings account. Dale Harcombe (10327) 29 Apr 2009 06:12 PMThanks KPRICE888 for putting your point of view and telling us what your marriage does. So long as you are both happy with the arrangement, that's what's important. Dale Harcombe (10327) 29 Apr 2009 06:16 PMThanks Aggiegal for inspiring the blog to begin with and for your comments. Sounds like there's still plenty of sharing going on. Community Tags his and her's bank accounts, joint account, money in marriage, Money and Marriage Discuss this article
|
Marriage categories |
