Marital Finances

[Anonymous]

Can others run down how they handle finances in their marriage? I’m looking for ideas of how to do things in my marriage. If you system works for your family could you share how you manage things?

[Anonymous]

Money DH makes goes into our checking to pay for everyday bills. Retirement accounts are also paid from his pay. Money I make goes into savings to pay for big bills. We use Amex for everything and DH pays it every month. I pay other bills like electricity, medical etc because I have more time for that stuff.

[Anonymous]

Direct from both paychecks to retirement (when kids were in daycare, just enough to get the company match - before and after, maximum allowed)
Balance to a joint checking account - all bills paid from there
Bonus money, 10% to fun and frivolous, the rest to brokerage account (everything in both of our names)

9-12 months emergency fund in a Cap One money market account (also used to buy new cars, replace HVAC, etc)

FWIW, spouse has always made around 6 times what I make (sometimes more, sometimes less). All but one 2-year stretch I had the more flexible job and took care of all the kid stuff. During those 2 years, we literally split it, sometimes splitting the day at work (I'd work half a day and he'd work half a day, depending on who had what meetings going on)

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

After 457 deductions, paychecks go into a joint account. I take care of all of the bills and I move money between checking and savings and into college savings. If we’re short on money I let my spouse know we need to watch our spending. Big purchases are all by agreement. We have never had credit card debt and rarely have had car loans. Pretty much just mortgage. We’ve been like this for over 30 years.

[Anonymous]

Our paychecks get deposited to our individual checking accounts. Each retains a certain (equal) dollar amount each month. The rest gets deposited into a joint account. Everything gets paid/saved from there.

[Anonymous]

We each came into the marriage with trusts. We have a prenup, and the trusts are never to be comingled. We basically never touch those except for tuition for the kids. We each work full time, and we each put two thirds our paycheck into a joint account and one third into a personal savings.

[Anonymous]

Majority is deposited into a joint account and then distributed among cds, savings stuff etc, We have a joint credit card for all purchases to get max points. Each adult has a separate Cc for emergencies as well and about $200 per paycheck is deposited into separate checking accounts for frivolous stuff we get like haircuts etc and just transfer to the joint to pay iff the CC for those purchases. DH set up autopay for all bills and checks all accounts and retirement accounts monthly and puts info into a big spreadsheet. He tells me where we are at regarding any savings goals when he does the numbers. I make more $$ by about 30% but im a spender so he keeps me in line

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We each came into the marriage with trusts. We have a prenup, and the trusts are never to be comingled. We basically never touch those except for tuition for the kids. We each work full time, and we each put two thirds our paycheck into a joint account and one third into a personal savings.

Business arrangement

[Anonymous]

Our finances are separate; my pay from work goes into my spending account. My savings and investments are in various accounts. He handles his income and investments. He makes a lot more money than I do so he pays our bills and pays a credit card I can charge anything I want to on (although I'm pretty frugal, fwiw). I pay for groceries. Despite our separate accounts, he always says our money is "the same," which, given that he has more, basically means I can spend what I want and he'll pay for it and not consider it his business. We are both on the deed to the house, and we are both on the mortgage, but he makes the payments.

We married later in life, are financially comfortable but not rich (both of us are professionals and inherited $), and we don't have kids, so it never made sense to open joint accounts or whatever. It works for us.

[Anonymous]

We kept our original accounts but made a joint/house account. Pay cheques are deposited into our original accounts, and a $ amt transferred out into the joint/house account where most bills come from. We keep our own separate, but know how much is there and have individual investments with joint outcomes in mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We each came into the marriage with trusts. We have a prenup, and the trusts are never to be comingled. We basically never touch those except for tuition for the kids. We each work full time, and we each put two thirds our paycheck into a joint account and one third into a personal savings.

Business arrangement

NP. What an odd statement?! People are just nasty here.

[Anonymous]

Paychecks get deposited to individual accounts -- I contribute max to retirement, husband just does the company match, though I've encouraged him to up it. I make more so pay most of the bills from my account, husband's account ends up being the long term savings account (cars, home repairs).

We think of all of our money as joint and make decisions together.

[Anonymous]

All of our money is fully commingled. We agree on big purchases. I am the spender and DH the saver but we communicate and are generally on the same page.

[Anonymous]

All of our money is commingled. Equal contributions to retirement accounts that are in one name only with the rest of savings in joint accounts. I (wife) handle all the financial decisions and occasionally brief my husband but he's frankly pretty uninterested. We don't spend more than $1k without a conversation unless it's out of our "fun money" carve outs. I put YNAB on his phone years ago so he could see the budget but I doubt he's ever done so, but he's also not really a spendy person. I am extremely lucky that we are this financially compatible (and he is very lucky I am honest I could be robbing him blind lol).