Personal money question re couples

[DisneyDaffodil]

We have a joint account although I do not work and have no income of my own. We share everything equally and DH never considers the income to be his money, I deal with all the banking and budgeting and he never questions what I spend. We have been married 33 years and we have never argued over money, even when there has been very little.

However, I do realise this may not work for everyone. I volunteer as a CAB adviser and regularly see people who have been left by their partner with huge credit card bills, debts and no income after a marriage break up as everything is in joint names.

[Posiesmum]

All our accounts are joint. We are retired now but have always done this. I manage the money, DH has no interest in doing it! It’s worked for us for over 40 years

[EssexSue]

We have joint accounts although I still have my HSBC account which I had when it was Midland and local. (Remember local banks?). Obviously we have our own ISAs etc but generally all our money is pooled.

[Purplefrog]

We have separate accs and a joint one.
All the bills however are paid out of my acc. DH is hopeless at managing money and we would be in the red if we used our joint acc 😂

[wanye]

we have a joint account where the mortgage and most bills come out of. we have standing orders from our main accounts to transfer in enough to cover it (and a bit more, which we use to pay off a chunk of the mortgage every couple of of years once it has built up a bit)

we then keep our own accounts, but also have a savings account where we both transfer a chunk into each month that we use for holidays/house renovations/mortgage payoffs/etc - each time we get a pay rise, we up the amount we transfer by that amount (and usually a bit more - rounded up to the nearest £50) so we dont notice the payrise, but it means we save up for holidays faster

for our own accounts and daily spending, we tend to take turns buying things (shopping, gig tickets, nights out) so it mostly balances out anyway... so if i pay for the meal, my gf will buy all the drinks that night

[kateh134]

OH and I have been together for 24 years and bought our first house together after 2 years. At that point we opened a joint account, into which both or salaries were paid, and then gave ourselves an amount of pocket money which went in to our sole accounts. Joint account funds all joint spending and if it needs to be topped up, we fund the same amount from our individual savings. We stopped working last year, and are currently reliant on OHs pension as mine won’t kick in for another six years.

We both worked for a bank for many years and have a similar attitude to money, which helped to avoid arguments! I hated having to rely on him for money when i took time out from work to go to uni, but i think it made both of us more appreciative when we only had one salary coming in.

Our approach has worked for us, and having sole accounts means we both have independence in our personal spending.

[louiseybobs]

Just before James was born 6 years ago we got a joint account, we're not married, but together 11 years. Couldn't imagine doing separate accounts. And we never argue about money, do those who have separate accounts squabble over money?

[Beth_Disney]

Me and hubby earn roughly the same and when we bought our house we set up a joint account and pay the same amount in each month for all household spending (mortgage, bills, food, eating out, DIY etc). We have a chunk left over in that account each month which pays for bigger things like holidays.
What we have left in our own accounts is ours to do with as we want - hubby tends to save, I tend to spend!

I thought there might be an age divide in this thread but having read through I don't think there is.

[Vanillapod]

Originally Posted by louiseybobs

Just before James was born 6 years ago we got a joint account, we're not married, but together 11 years. Couldn't imagine doing separate accounts. And we never argue about money, do those who have separate accounts squabble over money?

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We don’t, but we probably would if we had one pot!

Don’t get me wrong, we do share of course but there’s no way I’d be able to keep track of the money if he had free rein!
He has improved and his mother says it’s entirely her fault that he’s so frivolous.
It winds me up that he buys coffee every day as it is! If I was jointly paying I’d be especially peeved (no offence MickeyHouse!)
I’m fairly careful and he is not!
My grandfather was a bank manager and always insisted separate accounts was the way forward with a joint account for household expenses only.
Of course opinions change but it works for me!

We also wouldn’t split the cost of a food shop or a meal out or clothes for DS! Whoever is there just pays but I wouldn’t fund football season tickets or sky sports! I see both as unnecessary 🤷

[JoJoBell]

We’ve been married 28 years and have joint accounts for everything except one that is in my name for our holiday spends. That isn’t done for any other reason thats its a really old account of mine that we use more for convenience

I can’t actually imagine either of us having our own personal money

We are both very good with money and neither of us would ever buy something large without running it by the other