joint accounts/seperate accounts Q

Hi,

My partner and I currently have our own seperate accounts but he's mentioned lately getting a joint account or in his words 'How about you close your account and we make mine our joint account.' ...

I was just wondering for those of you who have a joint account, do you also still have your own seperate accounts or do you just share the one account?
I'm pretty firm that I want to keep my bank account and he should keep his for himself and we should open a new one for both of us... Is that normal practice?

We've been together 4, nearly 5, years and have just got our own place after living with family so think a joint account will be best to have money going to and from for bills etc.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

(We also both bank with the same bank.)

We're the same - we have our own accounts and a joint account. When I was working we both put a set amount into the joint account to cover mortgage, bills, entertainment etc and the rest of our money was ours to do with what we liked from our own accounts. Now that I'm not working DP has just upped what he puts into the joint account to cover bills etc seeing as I'm not contributing.

My sister does it the other way around...everything goes into their joint account and a set amount into their own accounts for personal spending each week.

Guess it just comes down to what works for you...

I just closed mine and made his our joint. We have total money though with bnz so we can have like 10 accounts.. so we each have one of those for our own spending money. But it's still all joint.

We have a joint account that all the money goes into but we also have our own accounts for spending money. It just gets transferred to us from the joint account. That way it is fair and all the bills get paid.

We opened a new joint bank account and closed down our old individual ones. Kept the old ones for a little while but there really wasn't any point as neither of us have spending habits that annoy the other.

I think do whatever works for you - there's not a right or wrong way to do it

We just have the one account any money either of us makes goes into, and any money either of us spends goes out of. We also have a couple of joint savings account (one 'plain' savings, and one I put some 'baby' money into before Jacob was born - good thing there's still some there for the next one!). That works for us, and we have very few 'discussions' about it - but it wouldn't work for everyone.

ETA that this probably works so well for us because DH doesn't spend money. Seriously, the man would rather go without lunch than buy it , and most of his spending goes on fishing or tramping stuff that's kind of pricey, so we have to budget it in anyway. We probably spend the same amount on non-essential things, he just spends all his in one lump every so often. Me, I'll spend mine on chocolate

Edited by Hopes

Miss Shell, that's the plan, we've got a very, very tight budget atm and I reall couldn' see it working as if there is money sitting in the account I couldn't guarantee that DP wouldn't spend it iygwim!
So looks like we'll keep our accounts and have a joint account as well and just put money for bills, etc into that and leave our own 'pocket' money in our own accounts.

Thanks everyone!

We have both joint and separate accounts. Out separate accounts are only used for our 'spending money' so each of us gets an allowance out of our pays to do what we want with it - not much. $100 a week each. Everything else is done though our joint account.

I just find it easier to budget if we are not dipping into the joint account to buy our lunch each day. Much easier if that comes from our own accounts and we can each be responsible for our own discretionary spending. That way if DH wants to go play golf or drinking with the boys then he pays for it himself. If he doesnt have enough money do do something then we talk about it and a certain amount is transferred from the joint account (e.g. I did a girls weekend and he did a boys weekend - we each got $250 from the joint account to top up our own money).

We have one joint account that DH's salary goes into and I spend it Haha no, we also have a household budget but I pay all the monthly/day to day bills while he deals with the mortgage and tax bill. Any money I make doing casual work goes into the same joint account for both of us. We don't have a separate "savings" account.

I think if there's a chance one or both of you will dip into savings/bill money then it is a good idea to have a separate account with spending money in so once it's gone each week (or whatever) then it's gone and you also don't need to justify your sanity spending to anyone IYGWIM.

Hopes wrote: ETA that this probably works so well for us because DH doesn't spend money.

Hehehe same in our house!

As soon as DH and I decided to buy a house together (we had been together 5yrs by then) we closed our separate accounts and we only have joint accounts. By my thinking we share a house, eachother and now children so why not money as well. All the money goes into the account and I pay all the bills. DH hardly ever spends any money unless he does household shopping. We have never had personal spending money, we just both seem to know how much to spend (or not spend) from the joint accounts.

You just need to do what works for you. If DH was a big spender on 'nothing' then I would probably give him spending money or a separate account but he is good so no need