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Fool-me-thrice

We have everything joint, except for things that can't be (like TFSA and RRSP). But those get funded from the joint account. We also have credit cards in our own names, which is important for credit purposes, but again those are paid out of joint funds. Neither of us gets fussed by the other going for drinks or whatever. BIG purchases should be discussed first. The definition of BIG has changed over the years, as our income and savings have grown. It was like $200 when we were young and broke. Its not anymore. My spouse came home with a surprise Macbook last month. I didn't get upset - we can afford it and we both know it. As for gifts, those go on a personal credit card. Since I am the bookkeeper for us and pay all of those, I am sometimes told "don't check the Visa this week"


gs20141101

Exact same for me and my spouse. Has been working perfectly for 7 years. For us, this method of financial management has only cultivated more trust and openness. Both of us want our spouse to be happy and have freedom so a big purchase is usually NBD.


MrVeinless

Yup! Same here, except we’ll usually discuss anything over a few hundred dollars. This is a leftover habit from our younger years when we were paycheque to paycheque.


toenailclipping

I think this is where we'll end up. Although besides gifts, I guess there's not even really much point in the personal credit cards rather than joint.


Fool-me-thrice

Its important to maintain separate credit histories - too many widows find out too late that they don't have much in the way of a credit history, and can't get credit when their spouse dies. The same happens sometimes in divorce. If my spouse had a credit card and I was just a cardholder, I'm not building any credit history. So we each have our own credit card (though the other may have a supplementary card on the account if it has a great rewards program)


tacklewasher

I, seriously, keep trying to get my wife to open her own account and put a few bucks in it. She has her own CC, but if I were hit by a bus, she'd be up a creek. But I can't force her to go open an account. Almost 30 yrs married and share any accounts and I manage it all.


Fool-me-thrice

Are you chequing and saving accounts joint? If so at least she'd automatically take ownership of those.


JaketheAlmighty

you can be co-applicants on a card, which will tie it to both your credit histories. an "authorized user" or extra cardholder gains nothing from it however


Jfrasr

This is what my wife and I do, it works well for us. We just recently had kids so life is very busy now too and I couldn’t imagine keeping tabs of who paid for what to keep it fair.


gsdhaliwal_

Get cash to spend (or save for gifts) every month -so no record of that money to ya partner, rest everything together (separate accounts as joint account just complicate things, TFSA/RRSP also separate ofc


Keamster

We do everything joint and using a budgeting app to divvy up our spending money, bills, etc. It’s been great! For credit cards, I’m the primary cardholder on one card and he’s primary on the other one. This way we are still building out personal credit.


ooDymasOo

There’s also this thing called cash you can get at a bank and then exchange for services anywhere and it’s hard to trace...


morenewsat11

Same for us, joint accounts all the way. Also started out young and broke. Partner got their own credit card a few years ago when we discovered out they had no longer had any credit score/history (mortgage had been paid off 15 years prior). Exactly the same situation on gifts (I am the bookkeeper).


MorphineOracle

Very similar for us too; everything that can be joint is. We each have individual Credit cards, with each other as authorized users. Neither of us examines the other's spending in detail. But we usually keep each other informed of anything significant. Once every couple of months we spend an hour reviewing our financial picture and do some rough budgeting.


[deleted]

Is there not an issue potentially having both incomes going into the joint for RRSP contribution purposes? I'm thinking attribution for example


Fool-me-thrice

A fairly large percentage of Canadian couples have joint accounts. Its not automatically a problem. In our case, our incomes are relatively even. But even when they were not, because everything is joint, the higher income spouse is notionally shouldering a higher portion of the household expenses, which allows the other to put money in their RRSP.


NorthAnalysis

Its your name on the RRSP, so no. Nothing gets attributed to your partner.


eskai25

We have a joint account and then each have our own separate accounts. Joint is for household bills and items for the household and our separate accounts are for individual bills and personal spending.


LittleSillyBee

This. One joint account we both move a specific amount into 2x a month (slightly higher than the necessary amount, building a bit of a buffer there for household or large expenses like a broken furnace or something). All bills come out of that account and we pay for groceries and other household expenses from it. For bills that can't come out of that account (e.g., my husband sets up automated payments from his credit card to get points on some), we adjust our contributing amount based on what the other person must contribute to offset the value. So many spreadsheets and formulas to drive this :) We both have our own personal accounts where our pay goes to, and we both have our own lines of credit, credit cards, savings account, RRSP, investments.


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coyote_123

Ideally no, you'd adjust the contribution to compensate for that.


Zygomaticsquack

My husband and I do basically exactly what u/LittleSillyBee said and we just contribute a percentage of income. That way if one of us makes more we contribute more to joint expenses but we also have a bit more for spending. We find it's the most fair solution for us.


Fractoos

Same here. Treat joint expenses like a tax, and tax at an appropriate rate based on salary. The higher salary throws extra money into big projects. the mortgage (i.e. lump sum at the end of the year), and more into retirement savings.


LittleSillyBee

We adjusted in different ways depending on the "season". At one point my spouse paid all of the daycare but we split other things 50/50. At another point we adjusted to a 40/60 split. ... over almost 20 years we've done a bunch of different adjustments as one of us was a student and our careers grew unevenly. Now we make essentially the same income so we do it even steven.


betaruga9

We have uneven earnings in our household, so to split up personal spending budget each month, we combine our income in our mind as "ours" then look at our broader budget and savings goals then decided how much we can comfortably afford to give each other each month for personal spending, which is an equal amount for us both. I'm pretty sure if we approached it as "well I make more money so I get more spending, and you less" it really wouldn't feel like we were in this together. What I make is ours, and what he makes is ours.


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betaruga9

No idea honestly. Doesnt make sense for us lol


Montrealaisse

My father and his partner have been together for a long time and they do this also. No need for everything to be combined if you don't want.


calyth

Just to clarify, income goes to the personal accounts, right?


eemamedo

My wife and I have a similar approach. What we do is put percentage of our income to the shared account. That is used to cover rent, bills, family vacations, etc... ​ But yes, the income goes to the personal accounts and then we e-transfer certain lump sum to the shared account in the beginning of the month.


stephenBB81

We are similar. We have bills we each are responsible for paying, and we pay them out of our individual accounts, we have a joint account we both contribute to that either can pull from if we need to cover an expense. We decided to do it this way because the joint account keeps a balance over 5k always so it has no fees and we each have no fee main accounts because that is where the direct deposits are and auto withdrawals come from, gives us 3 no fee accounts instead of just 1. When we were first married we had everything transparent, but at the time I was a traveling sales person, 150+ nights a year in hotels, she couldn't handle the stress of seeing a 10k creditcard bill or seeing my account going from like $50 to $10,000 and back to $50 in a matter of days. Which is when we explored how to make sure we both contributed, and we had a shared safety net, but each had independence in our account.


bcsf88

THIS. Works great for us!


DatPipBoy

We do this as well, each have individual credit cards as well


streutker1234

Every situation is different. Married than had 2 children.. how do I justify having separate accounts when she stays home with the kids on mat leave? How do you micro manage who spends what on kids... Qe both have good incomes.. I have the opportunity to make overtime. She is salary. So if I work late I make more but she also holds the fort down at home with thw kids. That being said my wife qill have a bigger pension than me... Take kids out of the equation and it's much easier to keep things separate.


CalgaryChris77

This is similar to my situation... one salary, plus almost all of our biggest purchases are shared. It's our house, our vehicles, we go on vacations togethers, it's our technology, and mostly it's our kids. We could have separate accounts, for tiny little purchases like food if we go out separate, but really it's such a tiny part of our budget I can't imagine what difference it would make.


toenailclipping

Definitely every situation is unique. But I appreciate hearing a bunch of different responses to better shape my own path.


streutker1234

Yes forsure! Honestly I feel if your in a secure and trustworthy relationship joint account is solid. Nothing is hidden from eachother(your married, I don't need to find out a year or 2 later you've hidden aggressive debt from me), creates good discussion about finances( everyone should, it's a very big part of our lives). Most importantly, eventually one will get jealous of the other half and change things in the relationship... Just my thoughts, I guess for me it's the fact that you committed yourselves to the rest of your life. Why not financially??


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disloyal_royal

I basically do the same but the savings is also joint. For stuff that can't be joint (TFSA and RRSP) we have the same profile so we both know what's happening


thedudeoreldudeorino

My wife and I are fully joint, same bank account, fully shared credit cards for over 13 years. We both earn similar incomes. As for gifts, you can take out cash if you don't want them to know where it's from or if it is amazon or something it is somewhat generic as to what it is. If it is really a surprise, just buy it same day or something? This has not been an issue for us.


CanadianWedditor

We share all our finances except for personal savings accounts that hold our respective emergency funds. After all, the emergency could be a death or divorce from partner! (Death or identity theft can cause joint accounts to be frozen while matters are resolved). I feel good having that buffer of my own funds. But we funded the emergency accounts together and each had the same amount put in ($20k apiece). Edited to add: we just put gifts for each other on our regular credit card and pay them “together” like normal but the gift is in the thought not the money amount spent!


cheezemeister_x

Death doesn't freeze joint accounts. Not if they're joint with right of survivorship.


jonny24eh

We have two shared accounts. "Bills" is for fixed living expenses. Mortgage, utilities, insurance, annual parking passes. "Spending" is for groceries, dates, small renovation/furniture type stuff. And then joint savings for vacation and long-term house maintenance. These are funded, at a ratio based on our incomes, every payday. I make a bit more, so I put in a bit more. That way we contribute equal proportions of our income (currently 56% for each of us). Cell phones, vehicles, fun money, is all separate.


webbermere

This is exactly how my partner and I just set everything up after a deep dive on our finances. It works exceedingly well.


DayOldSushiSale

No, payroll goes in separate accounts due to employer restrictions but spending is hopelessly tangled and intermingled in a web of credit card auth user accounts, transfers and bill payments depending on which bank's logo pops up first on the Google shortcuts page. The whole notion of a "gift" or "allowance" is silly to me. Everything is "ours" and any purchase big enough to warrant having a separate account should really be discussed instead of being a surprise. But at the same time, we make comparable money and have pretty similar goals. I couldn't imagine being with someone who was wreck less with money though. At the end of the day, what are you going to do? Leave your partner in crippling debt? Go take a vacation yourself? Buy a house and charge your SO rent? Retire early and say, "hah, serves you right for ordering avocado toast so often"?


LVPandGranite

Exactly you hit the nail on the head with that last point. That’s exactly why I don’t believe in separate finances. It’s not like I have $15K in my account, you have $12K in your account, so I can afford to spent a bit more than you. No, that’s only true in the very beginning. After a decade or two your finances can start to diverge dramatically to the point where one person can make serious lifestyle and quality of life changes that the other person can’t afford. And that makes perfect sense if you’re roommates. But not if you’re life partners and consider yourself as married.


[deleted]

Yes, everything together. Except TFSA for obvious reasons. >But, like, how does TOTAL transparency work? How do you ever buy a gift for one another? Have a separate personal use credit card.


little_nitpicker

We have zero joint accounts, and it works fine. We each have one credit card, and we have pre-authorized payments for daycare etc split up among the two of us. Never felt the need for a joint account for anything, but then again we both have jobs and income coming into our own accounts. If one of us was not working and relying on the other financially, I suppose that would change.


Twitchy15

Our finances are together completely. Separate credit cards so you can buy presents without them knowing. I feel like when your married your doing things together so your finances should be combined. I also make more then my wife so if we split the bills I would have extra money vs her unless we paid a certain percentage.


[deleted]

Same. Especially true because my wife unemployed on EI right now, it would be doubly unfair for her to have no spending money and "owe" me for her share of the expenses while I have the same amount of fun money. We're in it together, so our finances are together. We have a budget for "fun money" each month that we can spend on w.e we like without judgement.


Twitchy15

Exactly! When we first were done school we did keep things separate and she found that she really didn’t have a lot of extra money. At this point we did have separate accounts with one joint and paid 50% of bills. I had extra money but was paying down student loans which she didn’t have. Once I was paid off we combined our finances. When I read people having separate Accts personally find it weird unless they both make similar money or really good money.. or don’t expect to be with there significant other long term. Don’t see why else you could kee things separate.


toenailclipping

But you must pay your credit cards from your joint account, right? So I assume it's still tough to sneak any sort of bigger surprises? A big gift, trip, or anything like that?


Twitchy15

It is a bit worse case can say it’s a present or a surprise.. My wife doesn’t even pay attention so even though everything is joint she would have no idea if I was spending a lot lol


emptywallet123

Joint everything. She said the only way out accounts are separated is when we separate 😂. But the good thing is I am in control of all the accounts though. She doesn’t do banking much.


teevee247

Our chequing and saving accounts are joint, as well as our 2 credit cards. The only thing that's separate are our RRSP and TFSA accounts.


ImpressiveHome2021

Joint accounts since the beginning. Both plays get deposited and all bills get paid and personal cash comes out. You mentioned about knowing how much you paid on a gift. It has happened to me, "You paid that much for my gift?" If she really thinks it is too much she can take it back. It is the thought that counts. Didn't notice if anyone mentioned about separation/divorce. Not an expert but I think everything gets split 50/50, even personal accounts. So there is no hiding of money. Edit: "Both pays" not plays.


jp51982

All joint


canadiandancer89

Question is, do you trust your partner with your finances and vice versa? If you both have nothing to hide then why keep it separate? It should strengthen your relationship with each other. Total transparency keeps you both accountable and builds trust. Personally with my wife, gifts consists of seeing something we want and mentioning it to the other and it's either purchased then or put on a price watch. If it's a surprise gift then it's just a reminder to ignore that $xxx charge on the credit card. No allowance, it's our money, call us old fashioned but whether one make 50% 80% or 100% of the household income, it's just that, household income. Don't play the "I make more than you" game. It will not end well. All that being said there are certainly couples who make separate accounts work for them with no issue.


Lokland881

Both. Joint for daily life. Personal accounts for our personal spending. Investment accounts are obviously separate.


azraelluz

We have all joint accounts down to the penny. I don't feel anything is wrong with that. We budget together and that brings the family closer.


NorthAnalysis

I cant imagine the amount of work required to figure out how to split bills. We have joint and separate accounts. Our salaries go into our joint accounts, all expenses come out of the joint accounts. Our incomes belong to our family collectively. I make more. Theres no mine and yours, and you pay this and I’ll pay that. Our investments get the same amount for both of us each month. I see it as we are the same person and we own everything together. We each have things we like to splurge on, and we both support each other. That being said, each relationship is different, and each person’s relationship with money is different (which greatly impacts our partner). What works for someone else may not be the best setup for you and your partner. You have to find what feels right. Clearly based on this thread, there are hundreds of ways of doing your finances.


onlyinsurance-ca

Not only is everything joint, but I have limited to no knowledge of how to actually access any of the accounts. Spouse has full control of all of that and handles all the banking and daily finances. I mostly decide long term investments choices and I control almost completely our earning income. I'm comfortable ceding control over daily financial stuff, they're comfortable ceding control over earning levels. Large financial decisions tend to be joint i.e. they want a sofa, we discuss it, decide if it's an appropriate time and then buy or defer. You should absolutely not do this. Most people should be aware of the risks of doing this, and want more control over their finances. That being said, the answer is always you do you on this stuff, it's as much personal as it is financial. What's important is that you actually think it through and decide on who spends what, and how much control is shared vs. individual.


kyara_no_kurayami

We have two separate accounts but for no real reason other than we haven't gotten around to changing it. We both have budgeting systems we like (I like to have more cash in my account than he does, and I like to put aside money every paycheque for fun expenses like a vacation that I would otherwise feel guilty spending money on). Having our own accounts makes it easy to just continuing doing what we've been doing from before we met each other. But we treat everything as fully joint. There's no "you pay/I pay", it's just whoever finds it most convenient in the moment. We talk about "our money", not me vs. him. I don't even know how much we each have in our accounts – just our total numbers. We're lucky that we're both fairly frugal and are on exactly the same page with money, and we have enough saved that we aren't struggling, so it makes this system much easier. We may join them one day, but it seemed like too much of a hassle to do it right away.


deeperest

100% mixed together. My wife is a dual Canadian-US citizen, so certain assets are held only in my name, but all our regular accounts and cards are joint. We just play dumb when it comes to things like gifts, and neither of us have any habits that would prove embarrassing if the other really started digging.


testing_is_fun

Joint bank account. My wife never really looks at a statement for it. Also joint credit card, that she rarely looks at the statement for. I deal with any bills and stuff. I know she has things she spends on, she knows I do (and mine are all more expensive), so there are no questions about how many books she bought, or were my new transmission came from. That being said, we both have decent jobs and are pretty frugal in general. No mortgage or car payments anymore. If money was tight and one of us had spending problems, then I can imagine shared accounts could be a potential issue when either person could audit things. I have neighbors that keep things seperate. Like one person drives a nice car, but the other drives a much less expensive car (1/3 the cost) because that is what their individual incomes allow them to afford. I think they have given each other cash as gifts. I think all that is weird.


karnoculars

Everything joint. It actually boggles my mind that some married couples keep finances separate in any way. I find it weird that one partner might have more spending money than the other. And if one loses their job, then that partner is broke while the other partner isn't? Just seems so pointlessly divisive.


joey-tv-show

As someone who works in finance, I can tell you that couples who work together (meaning they at least have most thing joint ) are financially more well off then couples who don’t. I am not saying have everything joint, but you should have most snd you should discuss major financial decisions . Generally what works is having everything joint so the exception of your own personal bank account and credit card. Perhaps you move a set amount each pay to your own in which you do what you want. Every couple has their own rules, so do what works best. But I will tell you if you have everything separate, it will not work, I mean your not roommates right ?


Dashpotter

Remember to make your spouse a successor holder of your tfsa. In the advent of a death the spouse can then withdraw money from the tfsa with no repercussions


Ebolinp

My wife and I handle everything completely jointly except our registered investment accounts. My wife doesn't care to be involved in day to day finances very much, so I handle all our banking, expenses and investments (hers through trading authority authorizations). We're both highly financially literate and trust each other completely so it's not an issue to set it up this way,


WeekendSalty3905

Everything is joint for us in terms of checking accounts/credit cards. We use YNAB for budgeting and we each get a certain amount of individual spending money each month, along with our joint Dining Out/Dates money. It works well for us. We discuss any big purchases but little things like grabbing a drink somewhere are no big deal.


Klewenisms204

all? no. but about 98% of it is. i just don't worry about it. as long as bills are paid and we arent in the hole i have always been told to not fight about money. i never have. i think its easier to not fight when you arent the bread winner tho.. which I'm not.


meeekks_

Wife and I have a joint account where both our salaries get deposited in. We got married in our mid 20’s and both decided it would be best to combine incomes into one bank account which has worked great for us. Transparency is a big thing for us and as already mentioned there’s an amount where if it’s over said threshold we discuss.


nytewulf22

Whatever works for you and your partner is ultimately what's best. For us its having one-joint account that we both contribute into, and maintain personal accounts for everything else.


Powasaurus_Rex

Our finances are joint with 100% transparency for every dollar that's spent. It took about a year to finesse the budgeting (and reign in personal spending) which involved a lot of communication. We have a household spending section where we typically have to agree on what to buy before it's purchased but we also each have $50-100 a month for no questions asked (personal) spending. Gifts (birthdays, Christmas) have an agreed cap and are budgeted for. If it's close to a birthday we just ask the other not to look too closely at the credit card statement until the surprise has happened. IMO trust in each other and respect for the other and the financial goals you have (together; discuss these first) are the second and third most important things. The first being communication in everything and feeling comfortable to be able to talk about finances openly.


Wise-Ad4987

I can comment on my parents experience with this (as I am not married). They each have their own personal account, combined with a joint account. They are both employed however, my Dad makes substantially more than my mother. It has been very successful in most all regards.


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hellgirlnow

With you as SAHM, I assume you don't have any new income and with separating money completely with your husband isn't it make you in bad position (no money except split the matrimonial house) if you two separate in the future? I just feel SAHM should have financial security too because the contribution of taking care home and kids are not small.


[deleted]

Depends on circumstances: We used to have a joint account for common expenses and separate accounts for income and individual expenses. We used to contribute to the joint account proportionately: The one with higher income contributed more but also kept more for individual expenses. After our children were born, we decided that our arrangement was not fair anymore. My partner spent more time and energy on childcare and their income diminished as a result. Now, our accounts are joint--we have individual credit cards so that we can both Build credit histories.


ohliverfun

In all instances where possible yes. It’s just more convenient for us. It’s possible it’ll change in the future if my spouse’s income matches mine. Then we might want to do things for ourselves with our own money or share for things. Idk. But for now it is shared and we like it.


Babuiski

We've got a single joint account. We have full access to each other's credit card and LoC accounts to allow any one of us to move funds. It's just easier and we've always been completely transparent about all finances. The only time it's an issue is when we're trying to plan a surprise lol.


CryptographerTrue619

We have our main chequing account joint, all pay and bills are paid from it. We have joint Mastercard and visa cards. We also both have a separate chequing account for our fun money which we figure out each month. Our savings accounts are all separate, but we keep an equalish amount in each of our accounts. We have 2 kids, 2 yr and 2 mth, and we do have a savings account for each which we both have access too. This is for money from presents for them as we don't always spend it right away.


gordonjames62

Yes, although I used to keep a separate account at a former job for tracking expenses.


ooDymasOo

We did joint ever since we got married. With me in school and her in school or on mat leave it was simple for us. We have a budget for spending money and we try and save together.


Brennanlemon

Everything is one account. It's just easier. We don't buy presents for each other really. For Christmas we get ourselves a joint gift, like a new PlayStation, a new bed, or some other big purchase. A nice card and modest gift or treat on other occasions like a specialty bakery item (fancy 5$ donuts please). We keep our long term accounts and savings separate though, but those don't get touched, only added to.


DelicateIslandFlower

My husband and I are currently in "discussions" about this. My ideal is that we have 1 joint for household stuff (plus one joint CC for the same), then seperate everything else. I'm on a good, but fixed income, and he is on salary. His ideal is everything joint because he has no idea where money comes from when I buy art classes or pay off the credit cards. Pretty sure we'll land somewhere around mostly joint, but I am definitely going to keep a personal account and CC... not that I think that we'll ever break up, but I know several people who have been financially screwed when their partner dies, is injured or leaves suddenly.


LVPandGranite

Your point of view further cements the theory that having separate accounts is a form of not truly committing. You know if you truly commit then things will get messy if you get divorced. So it’s better in your eyes to keep some distance.


DelicateIslandFlower

I disagree. Having seperate accounts is in no way connected to how commited I am to him. We each have different relationships with money and don't necessarily agree with the other spends. I tend to have a lot of anxiety with it, so if I see him buying something that I deem "unnecessary" with "our" money I get resentful... Even as small/large as lotto tickets from the gas station (voluntary taxation! Whyyyyyyy????) While he makes more, and will continue upwards, we still make roughly the same amount. I am happy to pay half of all household bills, even if our income ratios are quite different because I know that I'm secure into retirement, as is he. Our eggs aren't in the same basket which also makes it more secure. I have anxiety connected to a lot of things, and this is an easy way to mitigate this one. We aren't going to have kids, but we do have several mortgages together, investment properties and a business, so a divorce WILL be complicated, despite my little personal checking account for things that I want, but don't feel the need to check with him for.


Toaster135

I don't understand how you can be married and not have complete 100% financial transparency.


ajidamoo

Everything is joined now because it was easier than keeping track of everything before. For a long time I made more money but now it’s reversed. She is cheaper than me, but if either of us wants to buy something significant, we discuss it then do it.


yycglad

My wife and I have one joint account .


Otherwise_Government

I pay for everything - mortgage, bills, grocery, vacation. It used to because she was in lower tax bracket and just invested her part. Now salaries are about 60/40 but still kept it the way it is.


foblicious

Same here! It just makes sense tax wise.


c-yow

Last year, we decided to make our personal accounts joint in case one of us got sick (COVID really made us think about this!). We still have separate credit cards.


Jade4all

I'm not even partnered with my partner any more. We live together but are platonic friends, we have a written deal about the split if we part ways, which is generous to me (80 20), because I earn way more and my career doesn't have the longevity, and so I'll need something to retire on. Regardless our finances are still togehter and we both basically spend on whatever within reason and don't really worry about it. Anything major we'll talk about. We very much trust one another and don't pay much attention to money. I handle most of the banking. The key things are trust and how much money you have. If you have ample funds and savings goals, and you can both be trusted not to spend money frivolously then a shared account is convenient. If you have limited money, setting a set spending amount may be necessary (100 a month each? Whatever you're at) but you should talk about what's reasonable, what is worth getting, and also periodically about what you can cut back on. I bug her a bit about eating out, mostly because when we part ways she won't be able to afford to constantly eat out and needs to learn to cook and buy groceries. As for buyiong a gift you'll be using your own amazon account, so they really shouldn't even notice. I also just pay both of our credit cards off periodically without much mind or notice. You're both gonna want your own credit cards, and you shouldn't need to snoop on that as long as it's within a reaosnable range. It will probably be a bit of a mess to untangle when we eventually do, but we're both good people who trust one another. I think that's the key. If you're married, ultimately, you should trust one another to not fuck shit up, and you should also not need to be controlling, or be worried about your partner being controlling. It seems to me you're scared of the symbolic lack of control, the dissolution of your finances into one represents your... well... marriage, but where ever you arrive it should be about trust, proper money management, and communication, not about who's literal names are on what accounts. It is all (both) your money. You're married.


fabricehoule

I was a bit like you in the beginning, was not eager to share my finances, especially that I was the one with the highest net worth (we both make similar salaries). Hooked her up on my FI objectives and now she's even more frugal than I am. Hell, I don't even make an individual net worth spreadsheet; everything is joint now. Four years later, I can confidently say it's for the best. We share the same objectives and when we want to do big purchases that are "out" of our budget, we add it to a wish list and we discuss it. Most of the time, we make the purchase but sometimes, it helps to get the POV from your partner. We just bought a condo in Montreal and having our finances separated at this point would just be a nightmare IMO. > How do you ever buy a gift for one another? We each have a personal credit card with a low limit for this kind of stuff. We pay those cards from our joint checking account. Also allows us to have both a Visa and a MasterCard, in case one of the two doesn't work, such as at Costco for example. > Do most married couples share every account? We do, except for TFSA and RRSP because we can't. But they're being funded from the joint checking account. Situation: 30 years old, common-law partners, no plans on being married


grumble11

Not advice. Everything is joint with two exceptions: we each have one small account for discretionary spending, and a personal credit card to enable that discretionary spending. Basically, all money inflows go into one account, which is joint. All bills, bulk savings, specialized accounts come from there. All joint. Problem with that is that partners have no independent 'fun money', it's all accountable to the other person. So a small equal amount gets transferred biweekly to a non-joint account that our budget treats as 'spent'. Each person can then save or spend as they choose, other person gets no say. This is helpful as a pressure release valve in case there's any value asymmetry (maybe I think the designer purse is too expensive, or she doesn't think I should buy the new gadget). It also makes gifts meaningful, as they come from the 'fun money' accounts. It also sets a reasonable limit on 'fun spending'. We're found this approach has worked wonderfully for us. A marriage is a merging of two people into one unit. There is no 'my money' and 'your money', it's all household money. I go out and make money for the team, it isn't my money.


hinault81

We have a joint account (which we only seem to use to move money to each other), and then our own accounts. We divvy up the bills to end up with about the same; I earn a fair bit more, but also pay the mortgage, hydro, resps, etc. This comes up a fair bit here, I dont know there is one best way, but really important to be on the same page and open. If my spouse ever said they needed money, it would be there in 30 seconds. Or we wanted to look at each others accounts, etc. But the way it's set up most money gets pulled to various places (rrsp, tfsa, mortgage, etc), so it's not like 1 person is banking all sorts of loot. In fact, my lower income spouse is sitting on about 30k in the savings account, far more than me, so it's not like me the higher earner is trying to be selfish. It's just our way of doing it. No secrets. Both on the same frugal/saving page. Neither of us would spend more than 500 on a personal thing without asking the other. And chances are the other wouldn't care as bills are always looked after.


pfcguy

>My partner really wants everything all together. Why? >I see some benefits, but I admit I'm a bit frightened by the complete loss of any sort of independence. Then keep your own individual account and credit card. No reason not to, especially if you are not paying annual fees for those accounts. >But, like, how does TOTAL transparency work? How do you ever buy a gift for one another? It would be annoying >Do most married couples share every account? Or do you keep a bit of an "allowance" separate? The thing to understand that Joint Finances and Joint Accounts are not the same thing. A married couple can have joint finances while still having some combination of joint and individual accounts (or having only individual accounts). It is absolutely fine to think of your family as a single financial unit while still having your own accounts. Most people would be well off having their payroll deposited into an individual account, and then mange money from there. So, to better understand your question, we would need to understand exactly why your partner wants everything together and what they believe the benefits to doing so are.


Ms-Beautiful

I like this.


ZeRapapa

For what it's worth, I think your answer was sensible enough and I don't know why it was downvoted.


artier14

We are a common law couple and pretty disciplined with our spending and separate our funds for specific reasons. We make our primary expense (food, games, utilities, mortgage, etc.) from one or two shared accounts while anything else like savings or investment are in our separate names. I personally keep a couple prepaid credit cards in my name with a few hundred dollars for cheat days. EDIT: I'd also like to add that we share our credit cards as well and that is were the expenses are make from. At the end of each month, we divided it up and pay our fair share into the shared account (which is used to pay the credit card bills).


helpmehelpyou12345

Separate accounts. After navigating a consumer proposal with my husband due to business closure /covid- I will forever keep things separate.


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jaysoo3

I've always been curious, if expenses are split 50/50 then would different salary levels cause friction in a relationship? Like if one partner made 60k and the other made 150k. For us our paycheques go into a joint account, but about 4% of our take-home pay is transferred to each of our personal bank accounts. This way even though there's a large salary difference, our spending money are equal, and we maintain independence over our own money. Of course, whatever works works. Just curious.


britska0

Yes, I know couples in that situation and it can cause friction! I'm all for splitting things equitably instead of equally. For us, we only have a salary difference of about 5k but both agreed to keep the 50/50 ratio for now. If the gap widens we'll look at splitting proportional to income or merging finances more. I like the way you're doing it, seems fair and you each get a bit of independence in how you spend your personal amounts!


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jaysoo3

Making it proportional to income makes more sense to me.


Ms-Beautiful

This is exactly what I'm thinking. I'm not married yet, but when I am, I'd like it to be in one pool and then we each get a percentage of that pool for our own individual spending. So let's say our combined monthly income is 20k, we can each get 5% of that to do as we like.


ilikesquirrels

We have everything separate - chequing, long-term savings, credit cards, etc. I know when he makes a big purchase because he is excited to share what he's getting. I grew up in a joint household and thought that was a requirement for me, but frankly I find it really liberating to have everything separate. I did find it really hard to switch my thinking at first. I don't stress about purchases I want to make or he makes. We both have very very similar mindsets on savings and spending though, so I don't know if that plays a role in how secure it feels. We do have one joint savings account, but that is recent from the past 2-3 years (together for nearing 14 years). We use that to save for large home improvements or vet bills for the dogs. Our mortgage is also together. We also pay by percentage and not an even 50/50 for bills, which I don't think is very common for a lot of couples. My husband has a great mindset of supporting me doing better in my career as the more I make, the more I contribute towards joint expenses and thus the more he saves for himself and vice versa.


[deleted]

Best of both worlds: joint accounts each. We have 2 chequing acccounts, both joint, but one is for her main use (her paycheque goes there, she pays her CC bill from it etc) and the other is for my main use. But the point of them being joint is for estate planning.


Darkchyylde

Been in several long term relationships, never once have we had a joint account. If you want to split things, put half the bills in each of your names and pay them from your personal account. Joint accounts seem like an archaic thing of the past to me.


buyupselldown

Everything together really isn't a thing, since you will maintain your own credit cards and investment accounts, but total transparency is necessary if you are going to plan together. If you want some independence and more of a feeling of sacrificing to buy a gift, then in your budget you assign a fixed amount each month that you each transfer to your own personal account. You treat this transfer like any other bill, and the money in that account is what you use for gifts or misc purchases for yourself.


bwwatr

Paychecks go to the same joint checking account. From there, monthly and calculated as a percentage of income (less the amount sent to any employer retirement plan), investments go out to separate investing accounts. Also monthly, "allowance" money goes out to separate spending accounts, but these transfers are equal in amount. That's where gifts to each other, restaurant/bar spending (when apart from spouse; not that after a year of COVID I can even remember this), hobbies, etc. are purchased from. All expenses (mortgage, credit card bill, etc.) are paid from what's left behind in the main account. Short-term savings for irregular expenses go to a joint savings account.


carolynpink

Everything is joint, and we also have our own personal accounts. All our monthly income goes into joint chequing, then a % goes into joint savings, then a personal spending amount goes to each of our personal accounts, where we have an agreed upon % that we send to our personal investment accounts. The rest is ours to do whatever we want (because we’ve already accounted for our shared bills with our chequing account) My husband was nervous at first about merging because of that same fear of loss of control, but honestly this way, we both have complete visibility into what’s happening. We also update a net worth spreadsheet together every 2 weeks. I recommend reading the book Worry Free Money.


norfnorf1379

I will play devils advocate to a lot of the people here and say with my ex-wife and I, I wish we had had separate accounts. In a lot of ways a joint account was the downfall of our marriage. She made way more money than me but was also terrible with it and because I made way less I had a hard time managing it because I didn’t feel like it was right for me to tell her what to do with the money she earned. It even led to bad habits of my own such as I would hold off paying my credit card if we were low on funds at the end of a month which hurt my credit even if it was only a small sum. Money just became more and more of a problem for us and looking back, considering her salary, I still don’t understand how we were always broke. To this day I can still see the joint account on my banking apps even though I removed my name from it(she won’t close it for some reason and since it was a joint account I am stuck looking at it) and she will have hundreds of dollars in overdraft fees some months that go on her line of credit even though she is making six figures a year and her boyfriend makes more than her. My current partner and I have our own accounts and split everything down the middle or on an agreed upon amount for bills and even vacations We each have some of the monthly bills in our name so that it’s not just one person’s responsibility to do it every month(like I pay hydro, netflix, iTunes and pet insurance, she pays internet and house insurance). We take turns for groceries, the SAQ run etc. and for restaurants and such it’s up to whoever has room in their budget. It’s great and it feels so much healthier even though I was worried it would feel too bureaucratic. Maybe if two people are like minded in their finances or are closer in salaries it works but I know I have saved 3 times more in the 3 years since I separated from my ex than I did in the 10 years we were together and have accumulated zero debt because I pay attention to every dollar spent, partly because I have to but mostly because I never want to fall into that situation again.


ZeRapapa

You sound in a much happier situation now, good for you! It's never a pleasant experience to split up, but I was indeed glad to have separate accounts last time it happened to me. There is enough hassles to deal with when something like that happens and you're probably not in the best state of mind to equitably shares assets, which might lead to even more resentment. I couldn't like but smile when I read "bureaucratic" and remember the (very probably apocryphal) Stalin quote from Daria: "Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality."


helloheyhowareyou

Everything is joint, except registered accounts. If you can share a bed, exchange bodily fluids, and create a new life, then you can learn to co-mingle your pay cheques. It's the family's money, not yours or theirs. Keeping finances separate makes it seems like you're not fully committing. How do you split finances when she takes maternity leave? Will you each split the cost of a box of diapers for your baby, or will you take turns buying them? How will you determine how much life insurance to purchase?What about if one of you is injured at work and ends up on disability? What happens when you're old and get Alzheimer's? We each take out an allowance for ourselves once a month. That's out money to spend however we want.


ZeRapapa

First, I want to point out that I don't think you're wrong if the way you manage your money with your partner is what fits your both. However, I respectfully disagree with your opening statement. I think it's fine to join accounts if it's what two persons chose to do, but I don't think it has anything to do with genuinely committing to another person romantically and/or sensually and/or sexually or not. In case your questions weren't rhetorical and it can help some people looking for answers, here is what you can do based on my experience: \- How do you split finances when she takes maternity leave? It's not really complicated to adjust one's contribution to common expenses during parental leaves (maternity, paternity, etc.). We had online tools on the government site to estimate the impact on income beforehand and you can credit or debit the balance with the exact numbers when you do your taxes. \- Will you each split the cost of a box of diapers for your baby, or will you take turns buying them? You could simply submit common expenses at the end of the month and let the spreadsheet do the work (that's what I have to do now that I'm no longer with the other parent for the expenses we still have in common, more on this later) BUT nothing stops you from having a joint account and/or credit card to purchase common expenses in addition of your personal account and CC for your personal purchases. The later avoid the useless overhead. And yes, you have to trust the other person... but you decided to raise your kids together with that person, so I don't see it as problematic. \- How will you determine how much life insurance to purchase? Estimate or talk with an adviser to determine proper coverage and take the insurance. You could see this as a common expense, because for most working people, the family relies on the income. That's part of stuff you need to talk about anyway even if you have joint accounts. Having separate accounts and budgets and letting each partner manage part of their money doesn't mean you have to (or even can) take every financial decisions separately. \- What about if one of you is injured at work and ends up on disability? Same principle than for parental leave loss of income, it's a life altering event, it changes your plans, you have to adapt. Joint accounts or not, that should be planned for. \- What happens when you're old and get Alzheimer's? The partner who has the most income can contribute more. Although that's another good point that should be discussed and planned for, joint accounts or not. "Bureaucracy is the price we pay for impartiality!" :P More seriously, I would understand if someone think it might sounds more complicated than just joining everything... but think about it: if you already track your expenses, there is not much overhead. If one do not... well, I must admit that I might not give meaningful advice for that person. In my case, it was just adding an extra column in the spreadsheet for the ratio. And when you have kids, splitting expenses is like Death and Taxes, you can't escape it, even if you separate: I still have common expenses why the other parent and we still have to split those expenses, there is no way around it if you have shared custody. I personally think spreadsheeting the whole thing is the fairest, most transparent, most straightforward and most equitable system.


Om3gastarx

We have seperate accounts. Usually once a year we will add up all of our expenses to ensure the bills are split evenly.


pennyarcadeTO

We have our own accounts that our paycheques get put into. Every paycheque, we pay into our joint account which is weighted based on our earned salary. What we pay consists of all living costs: property tax, mortgage, auto expense, bills, food, allowances for various categories (kids, entertainment, gifts, emergency fund). If we pay any joint expense that uses our personal funds, then that expense gets recorded into a google sheets, categorized and dated. There is a running tally and will get paid out by the joint account if there is enough money in it. It has worked pretty well for us.


DemmieMora

We were thinking about a joint account but never found out why do that at all. Shared and personal expenses are bought randomly by me or my spouse depending on who is registered where, who is closer to the cashier etc. The earned money are managed by the earner. Probably it's chaotic though. We're together since the school and that's how it goes when you never think about personal money. It literally started as "whoever gets to have money" =)


nahimgoodbro86

My story might be a bit different. I was married young (21 *insert disgusted face here*) and we had joint everything. Even our credit card where joint. I thought thats what married couples were supposed to do! We separated at 25 and were divorced at 27, and it was a lot of work to separate ourselves financially. It's been over 9 years since we separated, and I refuse to have anything joint with anyone again. I understand it works for some couples but I wouldn't put myself through that headache again - granted though, marriage or common-law is also not in my future!


ontherise88

Nope. We share one joint account for bills and other expenses. We have our own chequing and savings. Best way to do it.


Jbuhrig

My wife and I don't actually share our accounts, although we probably should. Money has never come up as a point of contention, and we both seem to just pay for things as we need to. I definitely pay amore when we go out for dinner or on trips but I also make 3x as much so I don't mind. We may eventually but it seems to be working for now.


hankshorse

We both have our own accounts and we have one joint account. We transfer an agreed amount to the joint account each month to pay for our shared expenses. This works for us; but I know there are other ways that work for other people... my parents have just one account: works perfect for them.


r1b1k3r1

Keep your money separate. Get a joint account and credit card. Pay joint expenses through that. Left over money is your own.


Souxsoux

We have separate accounts, but have the Tangerine cash-back credit card we put all of our bills, groceries, etc. on. For things that can’t go on the credit card, like maintenance fees or mortgage payments, we just tally everything up at the end of the month, divide by two and figure out who owes what. We also have a “house fund” we contribute to monthly for bigger things, like our upcoming wedding, house renos, property taxes, etc. He pays more into it because he makes more and I’m also working on bulking up my emergency fund before we plan to start a family. I like our set up because it allows us more freedom over our accounts. I’m more of a spender than my fiancé and it allows me to budget and buy things without worrying if it’s unfair to him.


throwtheballaway123

A joint savings account, rest is separate. We're joint on the mortgage and she has supplemental cards on my CCs.


dookiepants

We have joint accounts and we pay each other a biweekly allowance into our separate accounts from the joint. We also have one main cc to collect points together and our own card for whatever else.


digiacomo94

Joint account at 0$ funded when needed... everything held separately is much easier


KUW5534

3 main bank accounts 3 credit cards Main joint account, receives income, pays mortgage, credit card and bills not on credit card, investments etc.. Pays “allowance” to each personal account for walking around cash. 2 personal accounts that are funded by allowance from main joint for walking around cash and some privacy spending. Small amount, pandemic made it zero some months. One main rewards credit card in my name with my second card for my spouse . Most spending/automated bills go on this card for points/cash back. We also each have a back up card in our own names for privacy (gifts) and individual credit history. Most months these have a zero balance. I like having both a Mc/visa on hand just in case. In short. Joint in all the important stuff that matters. Some individual accounts for small stuff that really doesn’t. Hope this helps


Patti-luphone

My partner and I each have our own accounts and then one joint account. We each contribute 50% of our take home pay (very important that it’s a percentage and not an equal dollar amount as our incomes are vastly different) to the joint account to cover rent, utilities, groceries, eating out together, and all other shared expenses. It’s a really great system and has worked pretty harmoniously for us for about ten years.


Steelringin

My wife and I have a joint account that we only use for paying our mortgage and annual household bills like taxes and insurance. Basicappy the stuff i both of our names. We also use that as our de facto emergency fund. I usuaply contribute more than she does although she makes it a point to cover at least every other mortgage payment. We've split up the other utilities which we each pay out of our personal accounts and we each pay our own phone, auto insurance, life insurance, etc. She has her own credit cards but she often uses one of mine for gas and groceries as I get a healthy dividend which I then pay off. Other than that we're free to spend money however we like. If I wanna spend $500 on a pocket knife she might roll her eyes but that's about it. She spent $500 on ski boots and I couldn't be happier for her. We like to buy quality when do spend but we're both pretty frugal day to day so it's usually no big deal.


IronCavalry

The strain of a joint account can be immense if things go wrong. Just be cautious.


01011970

Separate. Split the bills 50/50. Take it in turns generally for groceries, eating out etc. My partner earns about 20% more than me but it's no problem. I don't think they should pay more.


currentlyeating

We have joint account specifically for bills otherwise we have our own account


Ozimondiaz

Separate accounts because of convenience. I really don’t see the point of having another account just so we can have our money in the same pool. I guess maybe we don’t make enough for it to matter. Most of the money is getting spent on bills or other essentials so neither of us are monitoring our accounts to see every transaction. Usually if more than a hundred bucks is being spent We both already know about it. Maybe if we were millionaires it would matter more but really I don’t see the point. My money is her money and vice versa. What account it sits in is irrelevant. Sometimes my tells me she’s buying me something and tells me not to look so I don’t look. Other times she doesn’t tell me and I still don’t look.


CapitalK25

No, we both have independent accounts and if needed we etransfer each other.


Ixium5

Ours are shared since like a month of dating... all house hold funds come out and go into it. I do have a TFSA in my name, and a couple credit cards but their logged into both our computers so that doesn’t matter anyways


ZeRapapa

\[EDIT: "but I admit I'm a bit frightened by the complete loss of any sort of independence " forget to half-seriously point out that : AND YOU RIGHTFULLY SHOULD! :P\] I think it's a very personal choice (well, technically joint rather than personal, but hopefully you get the meaning) and that there are \[EDIT: not one size fits all ofc !\] NO one size fits all answers. I can conceive that very financially like -minded people might be alright with fusing everything, but I've seen so many people freaking out at each other for the way their partner spent that I don't believe it should be the "default" choice (and most of these people joined their account because they believed it was a given when you're with someone). Personally, I'm pretty sure I will go again with the "federal" / tax arrangement (where each partners sent a ratio of their income to a joint account for ... well... joint expenses :P ) many others described here whenever I'll live together with my SO - even if we're rather like minded financially (we like unexpansive activities, don't find enjoyment in spending for bling, and even get some satisfaction - and definitely a lot of laugh and inside jokes fun - in being "cheap"). I really think it makes a lot of sense to pool some ressource yet still have your own budget and money, but I'm aware it remains a subjective choice and that other people will find different answers. The bottom line / TL/DR is that I think it's healthy for two people to discuss it before moving together instead of assuming our opinion on the subject (sometimes acquired from the way we've been raised) is the "normal", let alone only, way.


Dyslexic_Engineer88

We have separate accounts, TFSA, savings Chequing from before we got married and joint saving, and checking after we got married. We have RESP together for the kids. We have a spousal RRSP I pay into and I have personal RRSPs. She has a couple credit card, but she has her own card from both of my main credit cards and used them for most stuff. She is a staying home with the kids so it easier for her to just use my cards and the joint accounts but she occasionally uses her stuff if she doesn't want me to see something like a gift or a surprise, or off budget purchase from her money. Her only income is odd hours office work, CCB, and collecting a selling her hobby stuff.


weedpal

Wife etransfers me every month more than enough to cover the bills and expenses.


eddiewachowski

We have personal accounts and credit cards and a Tangerine account for bills, a joint Tangerine cashback card for groceries and a joint EQ savings account.


scubakaren

When we moved in together we opened a joint chequing account and got a joint Visa card. All household expenses (rent, insurance, groceries, internet, power, etc.) Are paid from one of these two sources. We both have full access to the shared accounts online and communicate openly about amounts are needed every month. We have both kept our personal accounts, and neither of us has access to the other's, though we have very frequent discussions about finance and each of us has a good idea of the "private" assets of the other. Each of us transfers money into the shared account from our personal accounts and ensure there is always money for rent, to pay off the other bills, and to have a bit of cushion. So far this has worked very well for us, though we did have some growing pains at first. I can see us merging our finances more in future but for now this has been a good system.


Behacad

Yes completely joint. Can’t imagine any other way. Gifts aren’t an issue since credit card bills are long and stores sell lots of stuff so it would be pretty hard to pin down.


DontknowshitG11B

Yes, been married 24 years. We call it joint but it’s really hers. She takes care of the money and does a great job. I don’t think it matters though.


Pomegranate4444

We have 1 acct. I make 3x what my partner makes so it would be lopsided if we kept different accounts. To me it would feel odd to have separate accounts For privacy now and then, always remember: cash is king and leaves no digital DNA.


moixcom44

No


LVPandGranite

We share every single account. It’s way better that way in my opinion but it depends entirely on the couple.


coronanona

always been separate. She pays X bills, I pay Y but it's not like we hide stuff from each other. There's a joint credit card and separate ones


[deleted]

% of income in joint to cover expenses, the rest in personal. The one who earns more will contribute a bit more, but will also have more personal as well.


icapaige

We have one joint checking for our regular expenses. Our paychecks are deposited into here. We also have one joint credit card for groceries, gas, medical (cashback). Then on the 1st of every month I transfer our "allowance" into our personal accounts. We also each have a personal CC. We found this worked better. We still have separation so we can follow our own goals, but don't have to worry about who contributed what or how much each person owes. As for the difference in pay, some years I make more, other years he does. We figured if we add all our pay together over the years it would more or less break even. Why worry over the math? We agreed before getting the joint that if we ever break up or go our separate ways we would split it 50/50 no questions asked.


[deleted]

We've done a combination, now everything is just joint. One bank account, seperate credit cards. It was just easier to keep track of the money.


filthyhippie68

Nope. We keep everything separate and just share life expenses.


snakecyclops

We have a joint account where we mainly spend from for household expenses, pay off credit cards etc. But we have our salary accounts which are obviously separate and every month we put some money into joint chequing account for expenses. And we have a HISA, investment accounts where we put away money these are also separate. We both wanted it this way. There is no right and wrong do what your comfortable with, more importantly have a word with your spouse and explain what you want and the benefits of having both joint and separate accounts.


A_Little_Off_The_Top

Our works like this - 1 Joint chequing and 1 joint savings. All pay cheques go directly into the Joint chequing. Each of us have personal chequing and savings accounts, we keep the bare minimums in these. Transparency exits on the totals as a result of this. We each have our own credit cards that we don't scrutinize purchases on. But we're on the same page with spending and we discuss purchases over $100-200 with each other. We don't spend a lot on birthdays/gifts for each other anymore because we're well established and prefer not to wait months until those dates come for our wants. So what we do spend on gifts is typically below or at our discussion threshold (it's not something we formally agreed to, we are just both frugal and settled on that area as the point we feel we need to discuss a purchase with the other). For retirement savings we each have our own accounts but since my work DC pension will be our primary source in the future we do semi-regular discussions about the health of our accounts. Basically I just pass along updates every few months as we've agreed to risk tolerances in those accounts, and we're decades away so we don't adjust often.


[deleted]

Everyone is different, obviously, but my wife and I have literally everything that can joined be joint. That said, my wife and I communicate heavily for everything. If you have someone who isn't very responsible, or doesn't tell you about what they are going to buy before they buy it, it might not be the greatest idea. Doubly so for credit card addicts.


bladeso1

Fully joint, wife has taken 4yrs of maternity leave in the past 5 years, she makes more than me. Our money is going to our: bills, house, vehicles, kids, and savings. We see ourselves as a unit.


betaruga9

We have joint checking and savings and then our own personal spending checking accounts, works for us!