Do you and your spouse have joint or separate bank accounts? (1 Viewer)

[DocHolliday]

Separate accounts as well. Dez situation is pretty similar to us just different break downs of what each pays for. I basically pay all the major bills and she pays for the groceries and her vehicle payment. But that percentage breakdown is also similar to our incomes.

i have the insurance and my own 401k she has her retirement as well. I have separate account for kids education that I move some of our tax return into each year.

I agree we have never argued about money or spending. I might tell her to stop buying the kids toys but I wouldn’t call that an arguement more of a request as our garage is starting to look like a Toys R Us blowout sale. 

My wife and I have sepaarate accounts.  We were in our mid 30s when we got married and didn't feel like bothering with joint and separate accounts.   We talk about it occasionally but always go back to sticking what has worked for us.  Like Bing, we separate the bills with me taking the mortgage and her catching most of the small stuff.   Usually on weekends we divide up any bills that need paid without much fuss.   I'm definitely more frugal than she.   She is not a big spender but material items mean very little to me so I just don't buy much.   Once in a while I remind her that our daughter has enough toys or clothes and to take a break from the shopping.  

We have shared bank account screens but rarely see each other's bank accounts We only discuss money when we are considering big purchases or if money is getting tight due to unexpected expenses.   The joint account approach makes the most sense to me but any system that is fair and open can work fine.   

 

[AAABatteries]

She spends it all anyway - might as well just keep it in a coffee can.  

 

[jamny]

Joint account. She's an accountant and handles all the bills and is much better with money than I am. It's nice not having to worry about it.

 

[eoMMan]

We have separate checking accounts, separate savings accounts, a joint savings account and a joint mortgage.

No joint credit cards.

It works for us. Regarding paying bills, we both make decent money and have no kids. She pays some bills and I pay others. No biggie. And yes, we do discuss all the finances every so often. It's odd that it's a big deal or difficult to understand for some people.

 

[joey]

My wife and I have the checking accounts we had before we got married. But we put each other's names on them so we have access. We live in separate condos during her school year and together in mine during the summer. So I pay my mortgage, utilities, etc. and she pays hers. She has a car and I don't, so she pays for that. We have a joint savings account that we both deposit money into each month.

Same. Both have been Citibank members forever, so have our original checking accounts, but linked them right before we got married. Shared savings account(s). Joint credit card accounts.

I’m the major bread winner, and am generally more together when it comes to finances, so I pay all the bills, except for the medical/health insurance stuff. she handles all that.

No tabs on who spends what,  only occasional moments where we agree to scale back when we’re saving for big items like a home remodel.

When birthday/anniversary/Xmas gift time comes around, we just say something like “please don’t look at the amazon cart”

 

[Christo]

When birthday/anniversary/Xmas gift time comes around, we just say something like “please don’t look at the amazon cart”

We've gone the other direction--no presents.

 

[joey]

We've gone the other direction--no presents.

Ha. Yeah. We do that for the “smaller” holidays. Valentines Day is just us getting a babysitter and going out to dinner together. And most “real” gifts are from lists we send each other (“here’s the list of things I was going to buy myself at some point, so feel free to buy from this list”). Works great, especially for Xmas when I’m sure I’d get 3 out of the 4-ish gifts “wrong” if she didn’t just send me her list. 

 

[gianmarco]

We've gone the other direction--no presents.

Yep.

(Mid-April) Me: "Hey, I'm getting the new Gear S3 watch"

Her: " Ok.... Happy Father's Day"

 

[Slapdash]

We use the same system that we have since we moved in together about 5 years ago.  We each deposit a certain amount of each paycheck into our shared account from which all shared bills are paid.  The contribution percentage is based on the ratio of our pay so I contribute $1.5k every 2 weeks and she puts $1k.  We will put in extra using the same method for big purchases or vacations.

Keep separate accounts so that we can do what we want without (much) judgement from each other.

 

[Slapdash]

We've gone the other direction--no presents.

Yeah. Little point in it.  If there is something we really want, we'll get it.  

 

[Steve Tasker]

We use the same system that we have since we moved in together about 5 years ago.  We each deposit a certain amount of each paycheck into our shared account from which all shared bills are paid.  The contribution percentage is based on the ratio of our pay so I contribute $1.5k every 2 weeks and she puts $1k.  We will put in extra using the same method for big purchases or vacations.

Keep separate accounts so that we can do what we want without (much) judgement from each other.

This is what my wife and I do.  We've calculated what we need in the joint account, contribute weekly to that fund with a small cushion, and it runs itself.

I have access to all of her accounts and she (theoretically) has access to all of mine, though she doesn't really seem to care about that.  I handle the overall "big picture" investment decisions, rebalance our investment accounts, etc.  Our main expenses (mortgage, utilities, insurances) are all auto-withdraws from the joint account, so there's very little bill-paying other than our monthly credit card payoffs.  I track all of our finances on a weekly basis and have a personal balance sheet, of sorts, showing our financial life at any given time.

 

[gianmarco]

This is what my wife and I do.  We've calculated what we need in the joint account, contribute weekly to that fund with a small cushion, and it runs itself.

I have access to all of her accounts and she (theoretically) has access to all of mine, though she doesn't really seem to care about that.  I handle the overall "big picture" investment decisions, rebalance our investment accounts, etc.  Our main expenses (mortgage, utilities, insurances) are all auto-withdraws from the joint account, so there's very little bill-paying other than our monthly credit card payoffs.  I track all of our finances on a weekly basis and have a personal balance sheet, of sorts, showing our financial life at any given time.

So you essentially have a joint account. Do you think the separate accounts really serve a purpose?

 

[eoMMan]

So you essentially have a joint account. Do you think the separate accounts really serve a purpose?

I think one of the biggest benefits of separate accounts is the freedom to manage your "portion" of the money.  In joint accounts, I can definitely see how little fights might be started simply due to misunderstanding or miscommunication . For example, let's say my wife and I only have a joint account and I saw that my wife was buying lunch everyday of the week and I know we have a fridge full of food that she could have taken for lunch.  Some very possible (insecure as well) reactions could be:

"WTF?!  Why is she wasting so much of OUR money by eating out!"

"OMG, is she cheating on me and going to lunch with some other guy?!?!"

Or what if one person in the relationship decides to go shopping or out for drinks and the spouse thinks maybe they spent too much.

See what I mean? 

 

[gianmarco]

I think one of the biggest benefits of separate accounts is the freedom to manage your "portion" of the money.  In joint accounts, I can definitely see how little fights might be started simply due to misunderstanding or miscommunication . For example, let's say my wife and I only have a joint account and I saw that my wife was buying lunch everyday of the week and I know we have a fridge full of food that she could have taken for lunch.  Some very possible (insecure as well) reactions could be:

"WTF?!  Why is she wasting so much of OUR money by eating out!"

"OMG, is she cheating on me and going to lunch with some other guy?!?!"

Or what if one person in the relationship decides to go shopping or out for drinks and the spouse thinks maybe they spent too much.

See what I mean? 

I'll try to answer and address all of those with different points:

1) He has access to her accounts anyway and can see all those things anyway if he wants. What's to keep that from happening at some point?

2) Even with separate accounts, the wasting money on lunch thing, it's still "our" money, so just the fact that it's in a different account doesn't change that. Especially when many of you have stated you will "help out" if the other needs it.  

3) Spending money on lunch wouldn't bother me at all. But if it did for whatever reason, in a marriage, it's something I should be aware of and then we can work it out. If something like that bothered me, keeping it secret is like putting a band-aid on a problem to me. I'd rather communicate about it and either not let it bother me anymore or have her change what she does because she realizes it's a problem for whatever reason. 

4) That whole cheating comment says much more to me and speaks to a trust issue to me. I'd never even begin to think that. And maybe that's why I can't understand separate accounts. 

5) Your last comment about spending too much, well, maybe they are. And either partner has a right to know and they have a right to discuss it and come to an agreement or compromise about it. Sure, it may lead to disagreements, but those disagreements should then be resolved and make things better and a marriage stronger, imo. Keeping those things separate and secret shows lack of trust and faith in the ability to deal with disagreements. Not for all, of course, and perhaps I'm reading too much into that, but those questions you posed aren't things that would ever cross my mind with my wife. 

In the end, I really don't care what she spends money on because we both have a similar outlook on our finances. Same with her in regards to me. If either of us started overspending, the other has a right to know so it doesn't become a problem. Again, because it's our money regardless of who contributes what. 

But it's never bothered me where she goes, what she spends, and never would. I think a big part of that is the transparency as we don't have anything to hide.

Believe me, I've tried to understand the idea of separate accounts. Part of it is fascinating to me, especially since there seems to be a shift in that direction by younger people. Maybe it's because I've only known one way and had it that way for so long. I do appreciate the responses, though.

 

[Ned]

I think one of the biggest benefits of separate accounts is the freedom to manage your "portion" of the money.  In joint accounts, I can definitely see how little fights might be started simply due to misunderstanding or miscommunication . For example, let's say my wife and I only have a joint account and I saw that my wife was buying lunch everyday of the week and I know we have a fridge full of food that she could have taken for lunch.  Some very possible (insecure as well) reactions could be:

"WTF?!  Why is she wasting so much of OUR money by eating out!"

"OMG, is she cheating on me and going to lunch with some other guy?!?!"

Or what if one person in the relationship decides to go shopping or out for drinks and the spouse thinks maybe they spent too much.

See what I mean? 

All that boils down to there is no “portion” or any sort of balancing between who spends what percentage.  It’s all our pot and spend how we like. 

The only policing I do on our account is to make sure we stay on budget. If I see we spent too much I’ll tell her to stop. Otherwise I’ve never thought “holy crap she’s spending 69% and me 31%; this is BS”.

 

[gianmarco]

Let me say one other thing about it, and perhaps others don't think this way, but...

--If my wife made the exact same amount of money, it wouldn't matter if one of us spends more than the other. If she went out and spent $1,000 on new clothes, I wouldn't feel the need to either try and match it with new golf clubs nor would I think "why is she spending that much when I haven't bought anything for myself in months". This goes over the short term and long term. 

--If one of us made disproportionately more than the other, I wouldn't think our spending would need to reflect that difference in salary. If I made 3x what she makes, I wouldn't ever think I get to spend 3x as much as her on stuff for myself. And vice versa.

When we got married, we did so for the long haul. Perhaps there are reasons why one spouse is able to earn more than the other that is indirectly related to what their partner did or does for them. As long as there is a general understanding of what short and long term goals you have as a unit financially, then that kind of stuff should never matter. If that understanding isn't there, then you're going to have problems whether you have a joint account or separate accounts. In the end, we've never kept score on who has spent what on what. Now, part of that may be that we are comfortable financially, but even if we weren't, then I know we'd both be responsible about what we spend because that's just how we are. That's a big part of why we're compatible in the first place. Even when we first got married and didn't make much, we lived within our means and continue to do so.

 

[bagger]

Everything is joint. Really don’t understand why people do it differently when married but it is more common than I would think.

 

[bagger]

Joint accounts and we still live this way.

Yeah same. We have a joint account and we both buy what we want to buy without arguments.

 

[JoeSteeler]

My sil and her husband had separate accounts. He made 2x what she did. I was over there once and they were arguing which one would spend "their" money to buy winter coats for the two young kids.

never understood why marrried couples would keep separate accounts unless you were trying to hide something.

eta or you do not trust your SO

 

[Bonzai]

Separate accounts here.  We make about the same amount.  Never had an issue.  I think we talked about getting a joint account at some point, but just never got around to it.  If it ain't broke, not going to bother fixing it.  This whole talk about "trust issues" is weird.  

 

[Angry Beavers]

Separate accounts although I make more than she does by a country mile so I pay all of the household expenses and we each have $ for our personal expenses. We have no kids together which helps I imagine. Works for us. 

 

[DallasDMac]

Separate accounts here.  We make about the same amount.  Never had an issue.  I think we talked about getting a joint account at some point, but just never got around to it.  If it ain't broke, not going to bother fixing it.  This whole talk about "trust issues" is weird.  

Trust issues is mentioned because a few folks in the "separate account" camp have mentioned they do it so they can spend unencumbered by what their spouse may think of that spending, thereby bypassing "disagreements." So maybe trust is a bad term. But then again, since folks are talking about the need to hide spending, it seems fairly apropos.

I feel quite fortunate (especially after reading through some of this thread) that my wife and I are totally on the same page when it comes to money. Neither of us are shoppers, and we both love saving for retirement. My wife absolutely loves seeing the investment accounts grow, so she strives to save. Yet we manage to buy what we want when we want, save for overseas trips (going to Ireland for two weeks this fall for instance), and have never argued over money. Admittedly, this is in direct opposition to my first spouse, who's motto was "Spend till zero, and maybe a bit beyond." I guess my takeaway is that folks totally in sync on money have no need for separate accounts. Folks that have their "vices" if you will like to have the whole "separate but equal" thing going to save on "discussions," and that's totally cool too. As a few folks have said, whatever works. I'm just glad I have the joint thing going, because it just makes it so much easier to manage savings and balance out the investment stuff which, at my age, is pretty important.

 

[AAABatteries]

Damn, I wish my wife made as much as I do - she could have her own account, boyfriend, whatever she wants!

 

[Bonzai]

Trust issues is mentioned because a few folks in the "separate account" camp have mentioned they do it so they can spend unencumbered by what their spouse may think of that spending, thereby bypassing "disagreements." So maybe trust is a bad term. But then again, since folks are talking about the need to hide spending, it seems fairly apropos.

I feel quite fortunate (especially after reading through some of this thread) that my wife and I are totally on the same page when it comes to money. Neither of us are shoppers, and we both love saving for retirement. My wife absolutely loves seeing the investment accounts grow, so she strives to save. Yet we manage to buy what we want when we want, save for overseas trips (going to Ireland for two weeks this fall for instance), and have never argued over money. Admittedly, this is in direct opposition to my first spouse, who's motto was "Spend till zero, and maybe a bit beyond." I guess my takeaway is that folks totally in sync on money have no need for separate accounts. Folks that have their "vices" if you will like to have the whole "separate but equal" thing going to save on "discussions," and that's totally cool too. As a few folks have said, whatever works. I'm just glad I have the joint thing going, because it just makes it so much easier to manage savings and balance out the investment stuff which, at my age, is pretty important.

You could say the same thing about joint accounts. 

 

[Steve Tasker]

So you essentially have a joint account. Do you think the separate accounts really serve a purpose?

I think it gives both of us a little feeling of independence.  Maybe more of a mental thing.  We're both pretty independent people in general so it's a little veneer of independence even if it really means nothing.  

We would probably have much more in the way of joint finances if either (1) she and I had very disparate incomes or (2) we had kids.  As of now, though, we don't have kids and earn in the same ballpark.  So long as we're funding our joint expenses and meeting our investment goals...if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess.

 

[The General]

If you trust your wife all these issues don't matter if you have a joint or shared account.

 

[Galileo]

Damn, I wish my wife made as much as I do - she could have her own account, boyfriend, whatever she wants!

Even better is when your wife makes more than you do!  

 

[The General]

My sil and her husband had separate accounts. He made 2x what she did. I was over there once and they were arguing which one would spend "their" money to buy winter coats for the two young kids.

never understood why marrried couples would keep separate accounts unless you were trying to hide something.

eta or you do not trust your SO

I think they may have issues regardless of how they had their accounts.

 

[JohnnyU]

Married couples who have separate accounts have the most money problems and I think have a higher divorce rate.  Also, money pulled together has more net gain for the family's financial future. 

 

[-OZ-]

Married couples who have separate accounts have the most money problems and I think have a higher divorce rate.  Also, money pulled together has more net gain for the family's financial future. 

While I do think there's something to it, do you have any evidence to support these statements?

I'm not really sure what you mean by the last. Just that working together is best?

 

[The General]

Married couples who have separate accounts have the most money problems and I think have a higher divorce rate.  Also, money pulled together has more net gain for the family's financial future. 

Not sure about those stats but if that's true perhaps there are other factors at play rather than placing that on separate accounts.

How does separate vs together have any bearing on investments?

 

[JohnnyU]

Not sure about those stats but if that's true perhaps there are other factors at play rather than placing that on separate accounts.- Perhaps, but I know from experience from other married friends that have separate accounts they fight over money and some of them divorced.  Sure there could be multiple reasons for that, and probably are, but I believe married couples who have separate accounts fight over money more than couples who have joint accounts.

How does separate vs together have any bearing on investments? - I would think pulling your money together would earn more in most instances than not, but I could be wrong. 

 

[MAC_32]

I think one of the biggest benefits of separate accounts is the freedom to manage your "portion" of the money.  In joint accounts, I can definitely see how little fights might be started simply due to misunderstanding or miscommunication . For example, let's say my wife and I only have a joint account and I saw that my wife was buying lunch everyday of the week and I know we have a fridge full of food that she could have taken for lunch.  Some very possible (insecure as well) reactions could be:

"WTF?!  Why is she wasting so much of OUR money by eating out!"

"OMG, is she cheating on me and going to lunch with some other guy?!?!"

Or what if one person in the relationship decides to go shopping or out for drinks and the spouse thinks maybe they spent too much.

See what I mean? 

My wife used to waste a lot of money on food. Our grocery bills were ridiculous, we constantly threw out food, and we still ate out multiple times per week. Having a joint account naturally led us to this conversation when we had our annual budget talk. It took some time to fine tune what we should do and want to do, but now our grocery bill is significantly less than the average household of 5. 

 

[The General]

  7 minutes ago, The General said:
Not sure about those stats but if that's true perhaps there are other factors at play rather than placing that on separate accounts.- Perhaps, but I know from experience from other married friends that have separate accounts they fight over money and some of them divorced.  Sure there could be multiple reasons for that, and probably are, but I believe married couples who have separate accounts fight over money more than couples who have joint accounts.

How does separate vs together have any bearing on investments? - I would think pulling your money together would earn more in most instances than not, but I could be wrong. 

I would think accounts being separate or together isn't the reason why couples fight over money. I have no clue on stats on this or how that would even be accurately measured. So many more things to factor in.

Money separate or together shouldn't have any impact on what you earn in investments unless I'm a dope. If you save "X" it earns "Y" it doesn't matter how it is split up. I'd argue it probably leads to safer or more well rounded investing in my case because the wife doesn't have any of my biases or stupid investment strategies. 

 

[-OZ-]

My wife used to waste a lot of money on food. Our grocery bills were ridiculous, we constantly threw out food, and we still ate out multiple times per week. Having a joint account naturally led us to this conversation when we had our annual budget talk. It took some time to fine tune what we should do and want to do, but now our grocery bill is significantly less than the average household of 5. 

Mine is slightly higher, but we eat a lot.

 

[JohnnyU]

I would think accounts being separate or together isn't the reason why couples fight over money. I have no clue on stats on this or how that would even be accurately measured. So many more things to factor in.

Money separate or together shouldn't have any impact on what you earn in investments unless I'm a dope. If you save "X" it earns "Y" it doesn't matter how it is split up. I'd argue it probably leads to safer or more well rounded investing in my case because the wife doesn't have any of my biases or stupid investment strategies. 

I think it's more of a problem when one spouse makes a lot more than the other and that person spends a lot more than the other on things that hurt the family's overall financial stability.  If the money is together I believe you have less of that.  Yes, it still happens, but to a lesser degree IMO.

 

[The General]

I think it's more of a problem when one spouse makes a lot more than the other.

I could see that. If the one making more cash held it over the other. That's would be a huge red flag.

 

[-OZ-]

I think it's more of a problem when one spouse makes a lot more than the other and that person spends a lot more than the other on things that hurt the family's overall financial stability.  If the money is together I believe you have less of that.  Yes, it still happens, but to a lesser degree IMO.

You're probably right but anecdotally, just from those I've read from on other forums, it happens enough with combined accounts 

I'd think the same reason people keep separate accounts is the reason they have problems, not the simple fact that they have separate accounts. But then, we were married 2 months after I graduated college and started working, she graduated 18 months later. We weren't really adults before marriage so we've pretty much grown as adults together.

I could see that. If the one making more cash held it over the other. That's would be a huge red flag.

Holding anything over each other is a problem. Money, house work, time with children, the specific subject matters less than the relationship. 

 

[Slapdash]

This is what my wife and I do.  We've calculated what we need in the joint account, contribute weekly to that fund with a small cushion, and it runs itself.

I have access to all of her accounts and she (theoretically) has access to all of mine, though she doesn't really seem to care about that.  I handle the overall "big picture" investment decisions, rebalance our investment accounts, etc.  Our main expenses (mortgage, utilities, insurances) are all auto-withdraws from the joint account, so there's very little bill-paying other than our monthly credit card payoffs.  I track all of our finances on a weekly basis and have a personal balance sheet, of sorts, showing our financial life at any given time.

Too lazy to track all of that stuff oursevles, we just track the aggregate in Personal Capital

 

[-OZ-]

Too lazy to track all of that stuff oursevles, we just track the aggregate in Personal Capital

Weekly seems a bit much but I like to forecast the future accounts. I don't think PC has that function. Is there another app that does forward budgeting? Like my Excel sheet has 2037 included (obviously just an estimate)

 

[tonydead]

Separate accounts; checking, saving and retirements. I manage the big picture and use pear budgeting spreadsheet (the free excel version).  

Don't get the in it for the long haul need to have combined accounts angle. Only recently got married after 18 years for tax and social security reasons. Don't generally believe in marriage and believe it does anything for commitment.  

 

[jwb]

I swear I learn some things here in threads that I never knew were so common. 

For those of you that are married, do you have a main joint account or do you just keep separate accounts?  If you have separate accounts, what is the purpose of it?

My wife and I have had a joint account ever since we got married (and actually started before once we knew we were getting married).  Our paychecks go into it and our mortgage/bills/credit cards get paid by it.  I don't even understand the purpose of separate accounts unless I was really trying to hide money (which is pretty common here, I suppose). 

I keep some cash on the side for things like going to a casino every once in a while or picking up a gift for her or whatever but even that isn't some huge secret (nor is it some significant amount).

My paycheck is our paycheck.  Her paycheck is our paycheck.  Bills are our bills.  I guess I don't understand the concept of married with separate finances but another thread seems to show that it's a common thing?  Maybe I'm lucky my wife doesn't just go spending money like crazy?  I mean, when I've gotten a check or something from friends for whatever reason, I think I've always seen joint names on it and just assumed virtually all married couples just have one main account they use and deposit into.

Exactly how we do it / see it.

We have a few friends that do the separate account thing and each is responsible for certain bills. None of them are what I would call happily married. 

 

[jwb]

I would think accounts being separate or together isn't the reason why couples fight over money. I have no clue on stats on this or how that would even be accurately measured. So many more things to factor in.

I think it's more the overall mentality that leads to separate accounts: e.g., "mine / yours". That's not the best mentality for a successful marriage in most cases. My .02 anyway.

I would make an exception for older people on second/third marriages that already have substantial separate lives / responsibilities / heirs. 

 

[DallasDMac]

Money separate or together shouldn't have any impact on what you earn in investments unless I'm a dope. If you save "X" it earns "Y" it doesn't matter how it is split up. I'd argue it probably leads to safer or more well rounded investing in my case because the wife doesn't have any of my biases or stupid investment strategies.

Saving money in a bank account earns virtually nothing, and that isn't what I'm referring too. I'm talking about actual investments. I'm referring to a strategy such as (example only), we keep six month living expenses as a cash reserve. Every time we hit $10k above that, we buy mutual fund shares with it. I would think that would be much tougher to handle with separate accounts.

 

[DallasDMac]

You could say the same thing about joint accounts. 

Ok, I'll bite, how so?

 

[The General]

Saving money in a bank account earns virtually nothing, and that isn't what I'm referring too. I'm talking about actual investments. I'm referring to a strategy such as (example only), we keep six month living expenses as a cash reserve. Every time we hit $10k above that, we buy mutual fund shares with it. I would think that would be much tougher to handle with separate accounts.

If both people put aside 20% of their checks it’s pretty easy for separate account folks to save.

I’m sure there are ways to make it work in both these situations.

 

[DallasDMac]

If both people put aside 20% of their checks it’s pretty easy for separate account folks to save.

I’m sure there are ways to make it work in both these situations.

I didn't say it wouldn't work. I said it just seemed as if it would be easier with a joint account. Once again, whatever works for each individual couple is cool with me.

 

[The General]

I think it's more the overall mentality that leads to separate accounts: e.g., "mine / yours". That's not the best mentality for a successful marriage in most cases. My .02 anyway.

I would make an exception for older people on second/third marriages that already have substantial separate lives / responsibilities / heirs. 

I guess it comes down to maturity of the couple. I don’t think there’s a blanket statement that covers this. Agreed that people bringing more cash, past earnings into a relationship probably leads to it being discussed before the marriage gets started. 

These anecdotes of “my friends do this and they fight all the time” aren’t really super useful.

Whatever works for people. 

 

[The General]

I didn't say it wouldn't work. I said it just seemed as if it would be easier with a joint account. Once again, whatever works for each individual couple is cool with me.

Agreed. 

 

[Keith R]

I didn't say it wouldn't work. I said it just seemed as if it would be easier with a joint account. Once again, whatever works for each individual couple is cool with me.

I comingled on day one (well, after the honeymoon) and haven't looked back.  But I don't judge/object to/diminish those who go joint.  Whatever works for the people involved.