Poll: Do You have Separate Accounts or Joint for ALL Assets?

[ShokWaveRider]

After reading the two or one car post, and seeing a few folk like their own cars, I thought this would be a good topic / poll.

Everything we have is joint and has been ever since we got married over 30 years ago. All except IRA, 401k and 427b accounts of course. But our beneficiaries are each other on those.

We have friends that adamantly maintain His & Her moneys and would not think about doing otherwise, others are like us. I just find it a lot easier and we NEVER argue about money as a result.

 

[pb4uski]

I responded no, but for no good reason we have his, her and joint taxable brokerage accounts... however the his and her taxable accounts combined are only ~8.5% of the total. That said, I totally manage the individual accounts and have considered consolidating them through in-kind transfers.

All other separate accounts are just those required by law, such as tIRAs, Roths and HSAs.

 

[Dtail]

We are not married but maintain all joint accounts except for of course the TIRA/401K.
This was a key agreement for both of us.

 

[pb4uski]

We are not married but maintain all joint accounts except for of course the TIRA/401K.
This was a key agreement for both of us.

So you're financially married but legally just shacking up.

 

[Dtail]

So you're financially married but legally just shacking up.

Yes indeed. Been together almost 8 years. Seems to work.

Currently it also allows to manage the ACA income better.

 

[Bestwifeever]

All joint forever. DH does use a separate checking account for hobby money he has made and for things he likes to pay for but it’s also a joint account.

Interesting question. Maybe separate accounts and property ownership go hand in hand with prenups (which I could definitely see having for marriages between already financially established partners).

 

[Sue J]

We have joint checking and savings accounts. I am very in touch with all of it and manage everything.

DH has logons and passwords for all of them and NEVER looks at any of it. He knows the checkbook is on my desk but has not interacted with it in many years.

More important to him is where we keep the box of this months cash because that's all he deals with.

 

[W2R]

After reading the two or one car post, and seeing a few folk like their own cars, I thought this would be a good topic / poll.

Everything we have is joint and has been ever since we got married over 30 years ago. All except IRA, 401k and 427b accounts of course. But our beneficiaries are each other on those.

We have friends that adamantly maintain His & Her moneys and would not think about doing otherwise, others are like us. I just find it a lot easier and we NEVER argue about money as a result.

This is the 19th year that Frank and I have been together. We are not married, and we never mix our money on anything. We don't have any joint accounts and we choose to live next door to one another in our own houses (that we each pay for separately) instead of living together.

We were both married earlier in life, and we know very well how money issues can cause strife in a relationship. So, we just avoid that completely by not mixing our money. It works really well for us. No mutual decisions needed. We have BTDT and know the pitfalls and how nagging can sneak into that process. Not only that, we don't have to spend our precious time together talking about money. YMMV and obviously does.

 

[Souschef]

We married late in life and each have our own assets. DW pays some of the household expenses from her SS and pension, and I do the same.
The reason we do not have any differences about money is we are debt free and have enough to cover all our expenses and then some.

 

[Jonesee]

Started dating when were 18 and 19. I've given her my paychecks and we have shared accounts since then.

That was almost 38 years ago, I think it all worked out just fine.

 

[OldShooter]

Separate checking accounts is the secret (49 years) to our marriage. She never knew how much money I spent racing sports cars and flying airplanes and I have no idea what she paid for heated indoor parking downtown when she was working, nor do I know how much she spends on shoes, massages, clothing, etc. Her charitable donations are strictly her decisions, though I do see those annually at tax time.

To be strictly accurate, all of our non-IRA accounts are titled jointly. My checking is like: Joe Jones and Sara Jones. Hers is like Sara Jones and Joe Jones. This is just for convenience in the extremely rare occasion where we need to do something with the other's account. I can't remember the last time that happened, actually & I don't think either of us has ever written a check on the other's account.

We have an informal split of joint expenses, like she buys food and I the RE taxes, home maintenance, and most car maintenance. Travel is split sort of randomly from trip to trip.

 

[KM]

Joint everything.

I can see a lot of reasons why people may have separate (not married, second marriage etc) but if you married young and made a life together, I’ll never understand why that wouldn’t include joint accounts. Yet, I know plenty of young people that don’t have joint accounts and always talk about his or her money. I find that odd...

 

[Alan]

I answered no but that has only been since just prior to moving back to England. The UK taxes individuals not couples so all our after tax savings and investments are in DW’s name as she currently has no other income. Makes no difference to our US tax return but a big difference to our UK tax return.

 

[Car-Guy]

All joint accounts, where possible, so I answered no. The DW has no idea (or even seems to care) how much money is in each account.

 

[NW-Bound]

Joint everything. We were married young, with a few $K between ourselves.

I imagine that things would be different if we got married when both were already established.

All joint accounts, where possible, so I answered no. The DW has no idea (or even seems to care) how much money is in each account.

My wife knows only roughly how much in each of the dozen accounts we have, but she cares the most about the main checking account balance because she pays all monthly bills out of that. It's my job to replenish it, so I keep an eye on it too but care less about it than the investment accounts.

 

[youbet]

Joint everything. We were married young, with a few $K between ourselves.

I imagine that things would be different if we got married when both were already established.



My wife knows only roughly how much in each of the dozen accounts we have, but she cares the most about the main checking account balance because she pays all monthly bills out of that. It's my job to replenish it, so I keep an eye on it too but care less about it than the investment accounts.

That's pretty much our situation. Married at 22 yrs old with DW $10k in education debt (back when $10k was more than a year's salary for a school teacher). Worked together to pay that off, raise a family and FIRE in our mid-50's. (Well, 55 and 58.) Never thought of having his and hers separate stashes. What was I supposed to do, tell her that her account was negative $10k?

Like you folks, DW handles most day-to-day expenses and bill paying and I handle investments and overviewing that inputs will cover outputs and what we'll do to handle bumps in the financial road.

We completely understand how folks in different life circumstances would chose to do things differently though.......

 

[Just_Steve]

We have a his, her and general checking accounts. I don't look at or question a single thing about her account nor does she question my account, we discuss only the general account. Granted all of thees accounts are joint but that does not give either of us the right to micro manage the other. Personal slush funds have always kept peace in the household, it has worked from day one and in September it will be 32 years.

 

[Red Badger]

Joint accounts. But there is definitely OUR money and HER money - and I better not forget!

 

[Car-Guy]

My wife knows only roughly how much in each of the dozen accounts we have,


It's my job to replenish it, so I keep an eye on it too but care less about it than the investment accounts.

Similar here too. The DW thinks the more blank checks we have the more money we must have, so I keep a lot of blank checks. Matter of fact, I may have enough checks to last us the rest of our lives at the rate I/we write checks these days.

The wife knows our NW (to the most significant digit level) but doesn't seem to care about individual account amounts.

 

[NYEXPAT]

We maintain separate accounts mainly to avoid/reduce taxation.

 

[athena53]

The reason we do not have any differences about money is we are debt free and have enough to cover all our expenses and then some.

This is the key, more than how things are structured. I voted Separate. First marriage was to a spendthrift who thought any credit limit he had left was money to spend. Separate finances at least preserved my credit rating and most of my sanity, but since he couldn't save a dime, it meant that my funds got tapped any time we had a major expense such as a new water heater. Second marriage was to a dear man whose financial priorities were far more aligned with mine. We still kept separate finances, mostly because I was a financial control freak. We never had an argument about money- there was enough to go around and our "wants" were similar- mostly lots of travel.

 

[Dash man]

Mostly Joint accounts. We each have one individual savings account with only a few thousand in it so we can spend without the other knowing from time to time. It started when we would spend or help our kids, but developed into a fund for when we want to surprise each other on special days. For the vast majority of our funds everything is jointly held.

 

[tmm99]

I think the answer depends on if you married young, or married later in life (=more financially established).

Second marriage for both of us and we have separate accounts although we know how much is in each other's accounts. We do have one joint account that we pay living expenses out of.

 

[NYEXPAT]

I think the answer depends on if you married young, or married later in life (=more financially established).

Also, whether or not you plan to keep a young mistress?

 

[Golden sunsets]

We are joint on everything that can be joint, but I notice that young people today are more likely to maintain their own checking accounts, with some method of sharing in the expenses. My son and his DW maintain a joint checking account that they transfer funds into from their individual a/c's to handle paying household/joint expenses. Their individual accounts handle their personal expenses. That makes sense to me because with constant ATM or debit card transactions coming from two parties, I think it would be too easy to overdraw an account. But they are on the same page vis a vis their financial goals, savings rates, etc.