Anonymous
06/13/2014 11:12
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
OP, you just need to figure out what works best for you. Clearly there is not one answer from the posts.
Before we had our child, each of us just paid specific bills and just worked it out. It wasn't a big deal. Post child, I ended up leaving my job and we just use one joint account and one main credit card. I do most of the shopping and bill paying so it is just easier. We kept our premarriage savings separate and we contribute to a Roth IRA for me every year.
Before we had our child, each of us just paid specific bills and just worked it out. It wasn't a big deal. Post child, I ended up leaving my job and we just use one joint account and one main credit card. I do most of the shopping and bill paying so it is just easier. We kept our premarriage savings separate and we contribute to a Roth IRA for me every year.
Anonymous
06/13/2014 10:22
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:We got married right after college so neither of us had any money. We went the everything goes into the joint account way. It works for us as we both have very similar spending habits. I think it helps that neither of us have expensive hobbies where one would have to sacrifice so the other can do their hobby.
Suze Orman recommends that if you don't do 100% joint accounts, then each of you contribute a percentage (not necessarily 50/50) of their paycheck to the account that pays the joint bills. I'm not sure how that works IRL. Say for example, when you're a crafter (hobby) and you stop by Ben Franklin's or Michaels and pick up a birthday gift for DCs friend plus some card making supplies. DO you make 2 transactions?
What you do in that situation probably depends on whether you're mostly merged or just merged enough for joint expenses. For those of us who are mostly merged but just have a hundred going into a side savings accounts at a time, then pretty much everything is paid out of the joint account. Individual accounts only get tapped for a random splurge you want that your spouse doesn't and if you pay for it from your account, there's no need to discuss it.
Anonymous
06/13/2014 10:12
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:We got married right after college so neither of us had any money. We went the everything goes into the joint account way. It works for us as we both have very similar spending habits. I think it helps that neither of us have expensive hobbies where one would have to sacrifice so the other can do their hobby.
Suze Orman recommends that if you don't do 100% joint accounts, then each of you contribute a percentage (not necessarily 50/50) of their paycheck to the account that pays the joint bills. I'm not sure how that works IRL. Say for example, when you're a crafter (hobby) and you stop by Ben Franklin's or Michaels and pick up a birthday gift for DCs friend plus some card making supplies. DO you make 2 transactions?[/quote]
It works if you don't nickel and dime each other. One transaction if $5 of supplies and 2 transactions if like $100 of materials.
I would probably pay with the joint credit card/from the joint checking account, and later transfer the amount of my personal purchase from my personal checking to the joint account. It's so easy to do online.
Anonymous
06/13/2014 09:13
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:We got married right after college so neither of us had any money. We went the everything goes into the joint account way. It works for us as we both have very similar spending habits. I think it helps that neither of us have expensive hobbies where one would have to sacrifice so the other can do their hobby.
Suze Orman recommends that if you don't do 100% joint accounts, then each of you contribute a percentage (not necessarily 50/50) of their paycheck to the account that pays the joint bills. I'm not sure how that works IRL. Say for example, when you're a crafter (hobby) and you stop by Ben Franklin's or Michaels and pick up a birthday gift for DCs friend plus some card making supplies. DO you make 2 transactions?[/quote]
It works if you don't nickel and dime each other. One transaction if $5 of supplies and 2 transactions if like $100 of materials.
Anonymous
06/13/2014 06:57
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
We got married right after college so neither of us had any money. We went the everything goes into the joint account way. It works for us as we both have very similar spending habits. I think it helps that neither of us have expensive hobbies where one would have to sacrifice so the other can do their hobby.
Suze Orman recommends that if you don't do 100% joint accounts, then each of you contribute a percentage (not necessarily 50/50) of their paycheck to the account that pays the joint bills. I'm not sure how that works IRL. Say for example, when you're a crafter (hobby) and you stop by Ben Franklin's or Michaels and pick up a birthday gift for DCs friend plus some card making supplies. DO you make 2 transactions?
Suze Orman recommends that if you don't do 100% joint accounts, then each of you contribute a percentage (not necessarily 50/50) of their paycheck to the account that pays the joint bills. I'm not sure how that works IRL. Say for example, when you're a crafter (hobby) and you stop by Ben Franklin's or Michaels and pick up a birthday gift for DCs friend plus some card making supplies. DO you make 2 transactions?
Anonymous
06/12/2014 22:58
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:100%. All of it. There's no "yours" and "mine." Only "ours." When you marry, you become a single financial unit.
Ok, well, for those who don't 100% feel that way, how much do you contribute?
We have a joint account to cover only joint expenses. The rest is in our individual accounts.
Anonymous
06/12/2014 10:59
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:We got married at 41 and have a joint bank account and credit card to pay for all of our household and family bills.
We each have our own separate bank accounts, credit cards and retirement accounts. Before kids, we each put in 50%, but now that I'm working part time, I just put all of my salary into the joint account since it isnt tht much and DH makes up the difference. I couldn't imagine having to defend my own purchases to someone else and I know DH feels the same way, but I think this stems from each of us being single for so long and managing our own incomes and investments before we met. It works for us.
+1. I'm the OP - we married in late 30s (me) and late 40s (him). I own our home. We've shared everything since we moved in together, but before we met we were both independent for a looooong time. That wasn't going to change overnight. The impending child is the catalyst for financial change.
Anonymous
06/12/2014 10:57
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
This begs a question, how should folks who get married when they are older (over 40) and have significant but unequal assets deal with joint finances? How should they make decisions on larger purchases, like cars?
Anonymous
06/12/2014 10:04
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
We got married at 41 and have a joint bank account and credit card to pay for all of our household and family bills.
We each have our own separate bank accounts, credit cards and retirement accounts. Before kids, we each put in 50%, but now that I'm working part time, I just put all of my salary into the joint account since it isnt tht much and DH makes up the difference. I couldn't imagine having to defend my own purchases to someone else and I know DH feels the same way, but I think this stems from each of us being single for so long and managing our own incomes and investments before we met. It works for us.
We each have our own separate bank accounts, credit cards and retirement accounts. Before kids, we each put in 50%, but now that I'm working part time, I just put all of my salary into the joint account since it isnt tht much and DH makes up the difference. I couldn't imagine having to defend my own purchases to someone else and I know DH feels the same way, but I think this stems from each of us being single for so long and managing our own incomes and investments before we met. It works for us.
Anonymous
06/12/2014 09:01
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:I'd be curious to know how old people were when they got married and then whether they do joint or combined finances.
We do 100% joint, but we have been together since we were 20 and barely had two nickles to rub together. At first we needed every penny that either of us earned just to keep the lights on!
I certainly don't judge people that do things more separately, it just never worked out that way for us.
I agree, I think age and your financial situation when you get married make a difference in how you approach this. DH & I got married straight out of grad school, so neither of us had much at the time. Our combined net worth was negative. In theory, we've agreed to the idea of us each having a small pot of money on the side for little things - we're still open to the idea, but just haven't gotten around to setting it up now that we actually have a little extra to do that.
One of my coworkers just got married in her 40s, they both already were home owners, had investments, retirement accounts, etc. They're not fully merging and I can see why.
Anonymous
06/12/2014 08:06
Subject: Re:Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
We get paid every 2 weeks, each of us have out own savings account. We put $400 every 2 weeks in our own account. The rest goes into the joint account.
Anonymous
06/12/2014 07:33
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
I'd be curious to know how old people were when they got married and then whether they do joint or combined finances.
We do 100% joint, but we have been together since we were 20 and barely had two nickles to rub together. At first we needed every penny that either of us earned just to keep the lights on!
I certainly don't judge people that do things more separately, it just never worked out that way for us.
We do 100% joint, but we have been together since we were 20 and barely had two nickles to rub together. At first we needed every penny that either of us earned just to keep the lights on!
I certainly don't judge people that do things more separately, it just never worked out that way for us.
Anonymous
06/11/2014 16:08
Subject: Re:Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
My husband and I share 100%. We each buy whatever we want, but we are both pretty cheap so this isn't much. It's the easiest and we trust each other completely.
Anonymous
06/11/2014 15:13
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:100%. All of it. There's no "yours" and "mine." Only "ours." When you marry, you become a single financial unit.
You may not feel that way, but that's the way it is. And my lying, cheating ass, money hiding STBXW is about to find this out when the papers are served. A big part of the reaosn for divorce is her not willing to contribute to the family expenses b'/c she needs to be "compensated" for being a wife and mother. Vomit!
Anonymous
06/11/2014 15:10
Subject: Merging finances - how much to contribute to the joint account?
Anonymous wrote:My husband and I are planning to combine most of our finances before our first child is born. I plan to set up a joint checking account and a joint credit card, and use those for all household, vacation and child-related expenses. We will still keep our respective individual accounts but pour the majority of our money into the joint account. For families doing it this way - how much of your respective incomes do you contribute? 75%? 80%? 85% Maybe irrelevant, but our HHI will probably about $170K this year, and while I am salaried, he is self-employed, so his income is not monthly.
One of us makes a lot more than the other, but we each put 50% into the joint account which covers all of our bills. If we decide to make a large purchase, go on vacation, etc. and the accout gets low, we'll put in an equal set amount. No kids yet though. I assume that once we have one, we will put in a larger percentage.