Spouse has hers and I have mine

[wrigley]

Same here.

Us too!

 

[38Chevy454]

All joint except the IRA/401k/TSP which have to be individual, but all money in those are treated as joint assets for budget and planning purposes.

 

[DayVee B]

All joint except the retirement accounts required to be for individuals. We are fortunate in that we are mostly on the same page when it comes to finances. We often sit and discuss our vision, wants & hopes for our finacial future which keeps up aligned with each other as well as accountable. And since we do talk about things often it's easy to tweak things if there is a short term goal one of us would like to go for. Both of us show a fair amount deference and over our 30+ years of married life we've found that when each of us is willing to move in the direction of the other it's a win-win.

 

[Music Lover]

As mentioned, retirement accounts are in individual names, but we consider everything to be ours. I’m a bit amused when I hear people talk about his and her money. With the exception of those with a formal agreement, it’s like they don’t realize they’re married and that the judge will consider almost everything marital assets.

I can see that for people that have been married for a long time. In our case, I had already retired and was collecting my pension for 2 years before I met my GF. It's 100% mine and no judge would consider any of it hers.

I have my pension and a small amount of investments. She has her investments. Both are separate. We live together and both contribute to a shared account.

 

[justlikebike]

hmmm... Ours is slightly different.
We have everything joint except for a small discretionary account for each other.
A small amount gets auto deposited into each account on a monthly basis. This is ours to do with however we want. I spend it on my hobbies etc. As she does with hers.
I would find it very odd to take money out of our dual account to buy her a gift. How is that a gift when it is our money? By having a little bit of spending cash, it feels more personal and also keeps me from overspending on my hobbies

 

[WyomingLife]

When we married we had no assets, only each other. Since then everything has been and continues to be jointly held.

We have IRA and HSA accounts that are individual, by requirement but not choice. In total they account for <3% of our total financial assets. In my mind they also are joint assets.

+1 us as well

All of these choices are intensely personal, of course, but in our case one of the reasons why we have been married so long, with similar goals and the like, is because our financial life is expressed in terms like "joint," "ours," etc. We don't always agree, and frequently don't. But everything is "ours."

We also have what I could call an implicit transparency rule. We ended up with separate credit cards for historic reasons, but each of us can see the other's account. No undisclosed or off-the-books spending.

We also maintain a consolidated list of all accounts, with passwords. So when one of us kicks the bucket, the other has seamless access. A relative also has those details in case we both pass together due to some unforeseen event.

We've also had estate planning document since way back when we started to have kids.

 

[W2R]

He has his, I have mine, and we don't have "ours". We are not married, and I live next door to him. Our money and finances are totally separate. This is our third decade together and this arrangement seems to work for us.

 

[pacergal]

Everything joint, except for Def comp retirement accounts.

 

[REWahoo]

She has hers and allows me to live here if I behave.

 

[MrsHaloFIRE]

Its all ours, except the joint things are mine, the things in my name are mine, and the things in his name are mine. I find it very equitable.

 

[Dd852]

We started with 0+0 and from that moment on always had only joint. Obviously we have separate tax-advantaged retirement accounts but we treat them as joint when we do the books.

 

[Souschef]

We married after losing our spouses, and it made sense to keep everything separate.

 

[brett]

Our bank accounts have always been joint.

Investments/equities are different. Some in my name, more in my spouses name. For tax reasons only.

 

[RE2Boys]

Everything joint here except for IRA, ROTH, & SEP accounts, but we treat them as joint.

Same here except for inheritances. My wife has a brokerage account that contains the funds she inherited from her parents along with profits from a home based business she had over 10 years ago. My name is not involved, our two sons are listed as beneficiaries. Part of my inheritance was in the form of US Savings Bonds that my parents put my name and SSN on about 30 years ago and I have not changed the registration of these paper Savings Bond. The last ones mature in 2023 and I may cash them in sooner just to make things simpler should I pass away before then. Big hit on the tax return reporting 30 years of interest. These inheritances account for less than 10% of our net worth.

 

[Sunset]

Ours are separate, for legal reasons, and it works just fine as we think of each contributing to the joint needs.
It is a little freeing, as while we discuss big ticket items, in the end I buy the auto I want for me using my money and don't need agreement. DW does the same. I don't have to compromise at all, nor does she.

I'm no expert, so feel free to fix:
I think some folks may not realize they will miss getting the step up in basis on taxable assets when their spouse dies, because they are jointly holding the asset. This is dependent upon the state.
While there is a 1/2 step up for joint accounts, it's not as obvious, and may not reflect actual contributions.

 

[gamboolman]

When we married we had no assets, only each other. Since then everything has been and continues to be jointly held.

We have IRA and HSA accounts that are individual, by requirement but not choice. In total they account for <3% of our total financial assets. In my mind they also are joint assets.

Everything exactly that Michael said, ms gamboolgal and I was poor starting out and it is just us.

We realize and respect that there is no right and wrong for couples. And alot of times it makes sense to have separate accounts.

I have noticed the last couple of years that ms gamboolgal has been watching lots of them documentaries on Wives Killing there husbands for the Insurance monies.........hmmmm

 

[RE2Boys]

O

I'm no expert, so feel free to fix:
I think some folks may not realize they will miss getting the step up in basis on taxable assets when their spouse dies, because they are jointly holding the asset. This is dependent upon the state.
While there is a 1/2 step up for joint accounts, it's not as obvious, and may not reflect actual contributions.

Covered as part of my document that I regularly update that outlines where and what assets we own and any other pertinent financial information, including latest Form 8606 regarding IRA basis.

 

[Gumby]

When we married, we were young and broke. Everything we've done since then, we've done as a team. The qualified retirement accounts are of course, owned separately, as required by law, but we are each other's sole beneficiary. Oddly enough, the total value of all our separate tIRA, Roth, 401k, 403b, 457 accounts is just about equal The rest of our assets are and have always been owned jointly. We have arranged the income streams so that it will be the same for the survivor as it is for the two of us now (i.e. - 100% survivor provision on the pensions; insurance for my social security amount). For us, I don't see any point in tracking income, assets or portfolio performance on anything but a joint basis.

 

[Sue J]

Everything of ours is joint except for my IRAs (Trad, Roth, Inherited) and DH is the beneficiary on those.

It doesn't matter that it's all joint accounts. DH has not looked at any bank account or anything financial in probably 10 years and that's only because I made him look at it all when he retired. He just has no interest. I could have a gambling addiction and be maxing out the credit cards and he'd never know. It's infuriating!

We built this together and he just prefers to be oblivious. It's nice that he just trusts me, but come on, be an ADULT about these things!

 

[pb4uski]

Married 38 years ago in our late 20s with $0 NW... I had $10k of retirement savings and DW had $10k of school loans.

Most everything is joint other than accounts that have to be separate by law like IRAs, HSAs, etc.

One recent exception... we do have separate CDs with Navy Federal because they were running a special 17-month 2.25% with a $70k limit per account so by having separate accounts we could grab more of that 2.25% special.

 

[mrfeh]

Everything is combined/co-owned.

Lots of threads on bogleheads for those looking for further discussion.

 

[Involuntary Retiree]

Its all ours, except the joint things are mine, the things in my name are mine, and the things in his name are mine. I find it very equitable.

This made me laugh out loud!

 

[MichaelB]

I have noticed the last couple of years that ms gamboolgal has been watching lots of them documentaries on Wives Killing there husbands for the Insurance monies.........hmmmm

I’ve always made sure to be worth more alive than dead, and also to make sure the Mrs and our children were well aware of that fact.

Its all ours, except the joint things are mine, the things in my name are mine, and the things in his name are mine. I find it very equitable.

When wDW and I married she said to me in Spanish “Lo que es tuyo es mío, y lo que es mío también es mío”. It took me a few years to learn Spanish well enough to understand that. “ What is yours is mine, and what is mine is also mine”.

 

[youbet]

When we married we had no assets, only each other. Since then everything has been and continues to be jointly held.

We have IRA and HSA accounts that are individual, by requirement but not choice.

Our story as well. We were net debtors (wife's school loans) when we married in 1970. Since then, everything other than IRA's is held jointly. And we are the beneficiaries of each other's IRA's.

It took us a bit to become comfortable with DS and DIL holding significant assets independently, but came to understand that's the "modern way."

 

[kcowan]

No joint accounts except the mortgage. We've just fallen into habits on who pays what bills. Account balances and investment asset allocation is coordinated across all accounts.

Ditto. I manage both halves of the portfolio as one. Second marriage for both. Keeping separate what we brought in. DW is fiercely independent.