How do you and your partner handle finances?

[ZephyrHawk]

DH and my paychecks go into the same account. I take care of paying bills and the like not because I have more time (I don't) but because DH is just not the type to remember that sort of thing. I also do the vast majority of the necessaries shopping. DH knows to ask me before ever spending more than $50 on anything. The only time he breaks this rule is when buying presents for me which he wants to keep secret, and which I am afraid he spends too much on.

 

[AshleyW]

My fiance and I have joint accounts for everything - checking, savings, a vacation acct, an emergency acct, etc. Our paychecks go into the checking account, and he figures out how much to send to each savings account. Then we have a budget set up on Mint.com so we can see how much we've spent and how much we have left for the month. All our bills are set up for automatic withdrawal, so we don't have to worry about bills. But, if there's anything that ever needs to be done with our money - he takes care of it. He's got a degree in Finance and I hate money, so there's less arguing that way.

 

[ICF]

Everything goes into 1 joint checking account that I use to pay all of our bills from. There is no hers or mine...it's all ours.

 

[KristinBelle]

We share everything.

 

[scottishduffy]

We have joint checking and savings. Seperate 401K's through work, and he has one mutual fund he started when he was 18. Everything is 'ours', there is no differentiation.

With me in school we are trying to keep spending down. There is no set allowance, I think the genral rule is that if it is under $100 or a daily expense it doesn't need to be discussed. Anything bigger we usually talk about. It was never a set rule that we made but it seems to be the pattern we observe.

He pays the bills from the joing account since he is far more organized than I am. I do most errands and all grocery shopping. Neither of us are big spenders, though we each have our particular weaknesses. He likes gadgets and electronics, for me whenever I take a vacation i like to vacation well. We balance each other out though. Works well for us.

 

[mom2rb]

We always put everything together until I went back to work. Now my money goes into my own account. I use it to pay for all the kids' activities, vacations, movies, ect... I only work part time so I am not making much. It seems to be working for us so far.

 

[C.Ann]

When my late DH was alive we had joint accounts.. The only separate account in my name only was the account that I used when I was selling on eBay..

I would never co-mingle money with someone I didn't have a legal binding to: marriage; business partner; etc.. I've seen "true love" go sour too many times and one person was left penniless after the other wiped out the joint account.. Although a spouse (or business partner) "could" do the same thing if they acted quickly enough, if you have some kind of "legal" connection there would be a better chance of getting your portion of those funds returned..

 

[JoanGirardi]

Joint checking and savings, DH pays the bills, I balance the checkbook at the end of the month so we both know where the money's going.

 

[LoraJ]

We still have everything set up as we did when we were living together. We each have our own checking and savings and we have a joint account that we basically use to toss money to one another. I owned the condo we lived in before he moved in so all the bills were set up to come out of the account. Just easier to leave as is.

When we ever move and get a new home, I will have the bills paid out of the joint account and we each move what is needed for the bills into that account, send another set amount to joint savings and what is left over is our fun money in our accounts.

This way works for us and we never fight about money. We know everything is ours, but it just works best for us to manage it like this. We also don't have kids. If we did it would probably be easier to do what most on here do.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

We went with joint accounts from the start. Our only separate accounts are things like 401Ks, IRAs, and Roth IRAs that can only be set up for an individual. Even those are community property, though.

I earn the money. It gets direct deposited into our joint checking account. From their, portions are automatically sent to our joint savings account and joint brokerage account. I handle both the day-to-day financial administration and the long term planning.

We both spend money as needed. We discuss and plan for larger purchases. Our savings happens automatically and we live within our means on the rest. It has worked well for us. We paid off our house today and our now totally debt free and are on track with all of our savings goals.

 

[Katy Belle]

I've been a SAHM for 14 years... but prior to that we always shared all money and all debt.

I have a Dear Friend who does it opposite. They keep their money very seperate. They each even buy a book of stamps and his stamps go on cards to his family and her stamps go on cards to her family. They each pay each bill every other month, so this month he might do house and car and she does electricity, phones, etc. I can't imagine, but it works for them!

 

[Sorsha]

We paid off our house today and our now totally debt free and are on track with all of our savings goals.

CONGRATULATIONS!

As someone who just bought our first home, and paid our first mortgage payment this week, it seems like that is a looooong way away! Well done!
Enjoy your debt-free status!

 

[disney1990]

We split up what bills DH would be responsible for and what bills I would be responsible for. It has worked for over 25 years.

 

[pearlieq]

Everything goes into joint accounts. It is all "our" money and we discuss how to use it together. I handle the day to day stuff and do most of the planning because I enjoy it and DH doesn't.

We each get a certain amount of pocket money each week for which we do not have to be accountable. We try to avoid unexpected purchases outside of that, but if something comes up, we check in with each other, even if it's only to give a heads up.

We don't buy a lot of "stuff" since we're both not really into it and we have other goals that are more important to us.