Managing Family Finances

Just wanted to start this thread to understand how married couples manage their finances. Some of the points i would like views on include:-


1) Are expenses shared or the responsibility of only one partner?

2) If shared what is the basis & how is it practially managed?

3) Individual bank accounts or Joint bank accounts?

4) Savings how do u manage that?


Any other views, ideas and practical tips and views welcome!!

1) The husband and I both pay for our bills and rent, especially now that I'm working. Before that he paid for everything (he didn't have much of a choice, unless he decided to divorce my ass) and considered his money "ours", which I highly appreciated.


2) Our basic expenses include all utilties, rent and groceries. When we do eat out or catch a movie together we use "our" money from our joint bank account because it's money that both of us are spending.


3 + 4) Personally I'd highly recommend having a joint bank account as the primary money that you use to pay for your daily expenses. I think it brings you closer together as a "team" knowing that you're building a future together with the money you have. After paying all our bills and other necessities the husband and I usually put away a sensible portion of it for savings. The rest we'll split between us and it'll be our "allowance" - I don't feel the need of setting up an individual account just for that, but that's just me. I love the idea of each person getting a bit of money just for themselves, mainly because I don't always feel like justifying myself for "useless" purchases (at least that's how my husband sees them) like a $300 lipstick. Or shoes that are only popular for half a season.


Bottom line is that while I strongly believe that finances should be a joint and mutual thing between a couple where NOTHING should be hidden, it's important that both partners are given a bit of room to spend their money whenever they're in the mood to spoil themselves. After all, we all work hard for our money and it'd be a shame NOT to spend it on things that don't necessarily threaten our survival, which is why women tend to have more fun shopping for Jimmy Choos than for, say, bread.


(Useful tip from watching 20/20 the other night: Divide your age by two and that's the percentage of salary you should be putting into your savings account, if you intend to have a very comfortable future.)

This bit of advice is not on how to manage your finances as a married couple right now but to look into the future. I am middle aged and more than 30 years married as are most of our friends.


As the years rolled by we all slipped into joint acccounts dispensing with our 'own' accounts. Over the past few years sadly to say two our male friends have died suddenly. In both cases the remaining spouse had to apply for a credit card in her name only which in both cases was an uphill battle as the wife was no longer working and had no income coming in other than interest on their investments.


I guess what I am trying to say is not to lose your own identity as far as the banks / financial institutions are concerned especially if you are a woman.

There is no magic formula as it depends on the couple.

Before marriage, we have our own savings bank account and used to spending "little luxuries" on ourself, so we do not want to get into potential financial argument after marriage.

I love my handbags, shoes etc.

We discussed that each of us should keep 20% savings for future needs/emergency, but continue in personal account, no checking.

He pay for the big ticket items ( house mortgage, kids education, his car, utilities etc) while I pay for the food bills,my car,maid's salary.

Holidays are taken care of by my bonus which is 2x per yr, so we do have good holidays without feeling guilty.

Whatever balance each of us have, we can spend on ourselves without consulting each other.

In this way, both of us build our savings for the future, without feeling frustrated on the other partner's spending.

Whenever I had extra perks/bonus, I cashed them to pay the house mortgage & reducing the loan.