Smart Handling of Married Money Part 3 of 4

This blog post discusses various approaches to managing finances in marriage, including pooling accounts for shared expenses, setting budgets, and maintaining separate accounts for individual spending and credit building.

Probably the area that has experienced the most change and variability with pre-married couples the area of managing bank accounts either separately or jointly. Many models exist and some couples find it easier to each have a set of bills they are separately responsible for.

Most common setup: spooling – split & pooled accounts
Use pooled/shared account for common expenses, savings and investments
Contribute equal amounts if salaries similar or a percentage if salaries are very different
Create a Budget: must start here – framework for all future discussions
Split/separate account for individual discretionary spending
Spending limits for discretionary expenses – must talk if over $X?
At least one separate credit card – maintain + build individual credit

It’s important to make good use of your team for two:

Discuss and decide who pays what bills, monitors the investments and files the statements
Be aware of what your partner is doing so you can take over if needed and can contribute constructively to discussions
Have a monthly budget meeting
Sometimes it is helpful to have separate accounts for separate items e.g. quarterly bills, yearly bills, education fund, vacation account etc.

In our final instalment in the series we will look at setting short term and long term financial goals together.

Smart Handling of Married Money Part 3 of 4

It’s important to make good use of your team for two:

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