Finances!!!

How do you handle money you had before the wedding? Do you keep a separate account containing pre-wedding holdings, or did you just merge all your money into one joint account?

Do you put all the money you currently make into your joint account, or do you each put a certain percentage of your income in an individual account?

If you keep an individual account, do you use it to pay certain bills (i.e., the student loan you brought into the marriage) or do you just use it for little splurges and buying gifts for eachother?

We are still trying to figure out the best way to handle our finances, and any advice you could give--general or specific-- would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much!

We have been sharing funds pretty much since we first moved into together. We each have our own small accts so we can get cash or buy gifts...but its all 'ours'.

We put the bulks of our checks into a joint acct where all bills/savings/investments are made from.

From what I can tell, every couple does a different kind of thing so you just have to figure out what works for you.

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Posted by BHW

Everyone's situation is different. We have separate accounts and a joint account that solely consists of our wedding gifts. There really isn't much $ to merge as I'm the one with most of the $. For us, merging our accounts will lead to fights about $. We wouldn't like how the other spent the $ so it's easier to have separate accounts. We'll probably put some % of our paychecks into the joint savings account since that account will be for a down payment on a house. Since I came into the marriage with most of the $, I'd like to keep it separate. It's not that I don't plan on sharing the $ with DH; I paid for our HM and paid off all of DH's credit card debts that he incurred as a college and law student. I like managing the $ and I want to ensure I'm saving as much as I can for our future.

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That is my dh's problem too, he spends all the money. I have the same situation and I handel it the same way. I don't mind sharing it, but we don't make enough right now, and every bit needs to be saved an not spent. I am the saver, so it is best to do it this way I think.

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Posted by Sonicstef

We have been sharing funds pretty much since we first moved into together. We each have our own small accts so we can get cash or buy gifts...but its all 'ours'.

We put the bulks of our checks into a joint acct where all bills/savings/investments are made from.

From what I can tell, every couple does a different kind of thing so you just have to figure out what works for you.

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we do the same thing

We have one account together, and we each have separate accounts as well. Eventually, we will use the joint account, but at this point we are still using our separate accounts to pay bills. We just decided who would pay which bills.

He does our mortgage, maintenance fee and cable (fair, he earns more)!, and I buy food, pay for LIPA and gas. Student loans and credit cards we pay ourselves. We agreed to save 10% of our net pay each month (that's what the joint account is for, along with wedding money).

We were trying to figure out if there was a better way to save our money, yet still be able to access it easily without incurring penalities, but there isn't much that worked for us at this point. Eventually, we will probably invest some of the money we have in savings currently.

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Posted by Sweetd

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Posted by BHW

Everyone's situation is different. We have separate accounts and a joint account that solely consists of our wedding gifts. There really isn't much $ to merge as I'm the one with most of the $. For us, merging our accounts will lead to fights about $. We wouldn't like how the other spent the $ so it's easier to have separate accounts. We'll probably put some % of our paychecks into the joint savings account since that account will be for a down payment on a house. Since I came into the marriage with most of the $, I'd like to keep it separate. It's not that I don't plan on sharing the $ with DH; I paid for our HM and paid off all of DH's credit card debts that he incurred as a college and law student. I like managing the $ and I want to ensure I'm saving as much as I can for our future.

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That is my dh's problem too, he spends all the money. I have the same situation and I handel it the same way. I don't mind sharing it, but we don't make enough right now, and every bit needs to be saved an not spent. I am the saver, so it is best to do it this way I think.

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Same here! Until DH can be responsible with funds, I am keeping my money seperate. We share when it comes to outings, trips etc... but I am not going to have my working money go under bc he cant balance a checkbook.

We just dumped everything together, now we have a joint check and and savings. My check goes into savings and DH's check pays all the bills. It was a little strange at first, because DH makes 3x what I make and since my salary went right into savings I felt like anytime I spent money I was spending his money. It didn't take too long to get over that .

Kelly