Do you and your spouse have separate bank accounts, and if so what is wrong with you?

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Chris- said:

Look at it this way: you got married young, so you and your wife joined your finances together at a time when each of you had more straightforward situations. Getting partnered or married later in life means a more complex puzzle.
 

For example, I’m trying to sort out whether or not my fiancé and I should file MFJ or MFS next year; if we do MFJ I can get the Lifetime Learning Credit since I’m in school, but then her student loan payments (all of which are income-based) will balloon. If we file MFS her student loan payments won’t balloon, but then I can’t claim the credit. That’s a particularly complex example, but in any case it highlights how tricky it can be. 

I get the tax situation complexity, ours have grown rather complex over the years. 
 

I guess for me personally, I like the shared accountability we have towards our family finances. We budget together, we discuss larger expenditures together, we plan out major personal financial decisions (like buying the property next door for her mother), we also discuss major business decisions together. It is all just such a normal bit of the way our relationship works that it would feel terribly strange to me to have separate accounts.

 

It is very interesting to see the ways other couples operate!

[CastlevaniaNut18]

I mean, we do discuss major purchases beforehand. Those decisions are made jointly. I wouldn't go buy a new vehicle without talking to him first. My mom did that and I  thought it was weird.

 

He's also a tightwad in general, where I'm more of a free spender. I've bought 4 new pairs of shoes in the last month(actually kinda unusual for me) where he's bought one new pair in the last 4 years. So us having separate accounts works better. I buy what I want with the money I earn and he saves or dumps extra on the mortgage.

[best3444]

Separate accounts just means you're cheating. 

 

Spoiler

 

[AlwaysDyingX]

21 hours ago, Jason said:

Probably to avoid being one of those couples where you have to ask the spouse permission to buy yourself a videogame.

 

 

 All our accounts are joint and I buy everything and anything I want . I couldn't imagine having to ask permission. That sounds awful 

[johnny]

i think both ways are fine 

[foosh]

On 1/26/2022 at 3:05 PM, SuperSpreader said:

Quick eject button 

haha, i wouldnt say that. tho we have our seperate accounts, we still have a common savings goal. our methodology in how we achieve it is different so it is easier this way.