Comments on: Joint Checking Accounts for Married Couples: The Great Debate Over Joint vs. Separate Bank Accounts

By: Do Married Couples Need to Buy Life Insurance? | Money Smart Life

Do Married Couples Need to Buy Life Insurance? | Money Smart Life — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:23:36 +0000

[...] policy and are looking for ways to pay for it check out the marriage budgeting tips and coverage of joint bank accounts for married couples to help make a plan and work together towards [...]

By: joyce

joyce — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:10:37 +0000

My husband and I have one child together and he has 3 from a previous marriage. We are considering splitting the bills as he is wanting to spend above and beyond the child support amount, buy 3 cars for his children, and pay for all the college. He is not requiring his ex to help. I don’t make triple of what my income is, but yet, he says we will split the bills 50/50. My argument is, if you bring in 75% of the income, you get 75% of the bills, and I bring in 25% of the income, I pay 25% of the bills……..

How do you split the bills up, when I can’t afford to pay 50%?????

By: Ralphie

Ralphie — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:01:57 +0000

Joint is the way to go. Marriage is a team and should be treated as such. Also, there will be transparency which means both spouses can monitor each other on the account. Overdrafting should not be an issue. Set up your checking account to draft from savings in case it happens. Also, have only 1 credit card with both your names on it, along with a limit that will not be exceeded and is managable for your financial situation. Finally, agree on an amount of “mad money ” each of you can piss away just for yourselves each month. I think about $200-$300 will suffice for each person, unless you are extremely rich and are materialistic.

I’m 32 btw, and that is a good foundation.

By: Liz

Liz — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:52:49 +0000

While I think joint accounts are great for a lot of people I do think it is a very bold statement to say it should be for everyone. They just aren’t. Family has come to mean many different things these days. And people are getting married later these days.

In my case I am in my 30’s and my boyfriend and I are talking about marriage. We both agree on separate accounts and then contributing a percentage to a joint account. Our reason is this. His graduate school education is 60k and he is still in school, and I have been out of college for years now and have nearly paid off my education expenses. Neither of us think its fair for me to have to contribute to his school expenses when I nearly had mine paid off when I met him.

I don’t think that makes us any less of a perfect couple, we actually agree on this matter and that is what makes us great. So many of my married friends fight over money.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 18:28:09 +0000

I have a different perspective, and I’ve actually thought about emailing Dave about my unique situation. I am the second wife. The first wife spent the first fifteen years of our marriage dragging my husband into court for more money at every opportunity, and yes, he was already paying all of his court ordered child support. Once she wrecked a car that was in her name and dragged him into court to pay the balance that was owed – and won! She can do this because she gets free legal services from her boss who is an attorney, so she doesn’t have to worry about ever paying for any suit no matter how ridiculous. The kids are all grown now, and she has remarried. However, when the kids were younger they told me that she said she wished we had joint assets because then she could convince a judge that my husband had more money than he actually had and then she could get her paws on my money too!

As long as this woman draws a breath on this earth, my funds will always be separate from my husband’s and our home will always be exclusively in my name.

By: Judy

Judy — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:12:06 +0000

What if you didn’t know about your husbands debt and he lied about it??
He doesn’t contribute anything to the household and I know nothing about his
earnings??
I know— I was a fool!!!

By: Benny

Benny — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:33:38 +0000

When my wife and I have a joint account it always gets overdrafted. If we don’t have a checking account and pay bills with cash if I have what’s left it lasts us until the first of the month. If she has what’s left it’s gone before the second week of the month. We both only get paid at the First of the month, and since we drive to 20 miles to work we’ll be asking around for gas money.

But I found in the past that when we had seperate accounts her account would overdraft. Mine wouldn’t so I bailed her out several times. Keep in mind that she’s on my account but she don’t know it so if I pass she still gets the money asap. But this is the only way I know how to save and keep money. She found out that I have $17000 in my 401K account.

Her solution to our problems is “you need to draw it out to help with the bills.” We don’t have that many bills. Here’s a good example: I use to drive cross country on a big rig. My bring home pay was $1000 a week. I was gone for up to 10 weeks at a time. When I got home our account was $500 over drafted. I don’t think that marriage counseling is the answer. Spouses like this should go to financial counseling.

My mother in law is constantly in our business. Is this a common practice for in laws? If so how can we tell them to butt out. They got to live their lives, they need to let us live ours!

By: mrs Y

mrs Y — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:39:19 +0000

this article has been very helpful. we recently got married in april and i have had all of my life a seperate checking account. my hubby thinks that it is a good idea that we have joint and my mom and stepdad have a joint checking account. my hubby and i have a joint savings account. i guess i am just chicken because like what the one part of the article says about afraid of overdrafting. that is me right there. but the more that i read this article i am seriously thinking about doing a joint checking account. i mean would this better our credit score if we have joint checking accounts and joint saving accounts or does that not matter? plus we are looking for our first home in the very near future and it would prob look better i guess…..i am more frugal with my money than with what he is. we both watch, but he likes to spend little bit…..maybe it would be better since the bank that i have now isnt going to be available come sept. eighth it was bought out by pnc. so…instead of it being confusing and having to order new checks and stuff maybe i should just combine mine with his checking account since he has a good bank. and i wouldnt have to worry about it being bought out or anything like that. really helpful and insightful article!!

By: bea

bea — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:38:01 +0000

I’ve been married for three years and my husband doesn’t have a bank account.
The reason he doesn’t is because he owed the bank for overdraft charges before we got married, so he could never open an account. Recently our employer made everyone get direct deposit and of course my hubby doesn’t have any account. For the past three years if manage all the finances and know he wants to have a seperate account. I’m scared because he doesn”t want to include me in his decision. I think that this is going to but a dent in our marriage.
He like to over spend and know we might even end up without anything. What should I do?

By: Char

Char — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 16:19:05 +0000

The situation IS entirely different with a couple over 40 getting married when each have grown children. My husband is the best when it comes to finances and firmly believes in a joint account. However, I don’t feel that it is appropriate to to have to ask if I can withdraw funds from our joint account for my children. The financial discussion will always be who did what when for which child. Totally exhausting. After we each contribute to pay assigned bills, I should have discretionary income for whatever I want to do that is within the parameters of a good marriage. I shouldn’t feel like a child answering to a parent on spending money I earned. Especially at my age.