Joint account or separate account

[AlphaFrog]

All our money goes in the same pot, but all our accounts are in my name. Husband is stereotypical Latino that doesn't like banks. He's got a credit card, but prefers to use cash for everything anyway.

Our finances work just fine because he feels like I make more, so I should be able to spend more, and I just consider it all "our money". This will get interesting when I'm in school and have ZERO income for 9 months. At least our living expense money is coming from the equity in the house which is in my name, so I'll feel like I'm contributing...maybe?

[DubaiSis]

Originally Posted by AlphaFrog

This will get interesting when I'm in school and have ZERO income for 9 months.

This is a problem most of my women friends deal with in Dubai (including me). Most of us gave up careers to move with our husbands and suddenly find ourselves being ladies of leisure. It sounds good in theory, but none of us had lives where we depended on someone else 100% for our spending money, regardless of how the bills get paid. It takes awhile to get into the swing of lunch, mani/pedis, outings, without 1-getting approval for everything and 2-feeling guilty about it. Even the ladies whose husbands make a LOT of money deal with these issues. We do eventually get over it .

[cheerfulgreek]

Joint only -two accounts, a savings and a checking, but both accounts will be joint accounts.

Premarital counseling is important, but I just think that it’s much more to it than that. A lot of couples do seek counsel, but the bottom line -a lot will depend on aligning with the right partner in the right way at the right time if it’s going to work. I just think it’s important choosing someone who is like me, yet different –being the same in his inner core but different in function. Temperaments and occupations can be different, but our values need to be as similar as possible. Opposites attract, but in most cases, they cannot maintain a long-term connection because they are not really compatible, even if they seem to agree on things when meeting with a counselor. In order for that marriage to be secure, whether you choose a joint account or individual accounts, you (in general) and your partner must operate from the same platform. You can find that out simply by letting time do its work, because the personality that was hidden from you before eventually comes to the forefront. I’d rather wait to see those things before I even make it to premarital counseling. But that’s just me.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Both.

Joint accounts for joint expenses. Separate accounts for separate expenses.

This. For as long as I've been aware, my mom has had a separate account because she would not feel comfortable taking from the family pile to spend on herself. I'm tempted to say that I would feel this way even if she had not modeled that for me (just because it makes sense) but who knows.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

This is how we do it

Cue obligatory semi-related link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0hiUuL5uTKc