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Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

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Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do realize that setting a budget is by definition controlling behavior? You are controlling the expenditure of the household. I'm not suggesting you are wrong for that, but it is controlling behavior. So your wife observed controlling behavior and then equated it to something in her past.

It isn't controlling behaviour if you both have equal input into designing the budget, and both agree to and support the idea of having a budget in the first place.

If you read the post, it's clear that is not what happened here. OP set the budget. Wife did not follow it.

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#172
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is not only predictable but acknowledged. It’s not ideal to fail to communicate and not realize it. It’s not ok to identify as someone who just doesn’t communicate and bottles up their emotions until they’re problematic. It might not be easy. But to do otherwise is a recipe for failure. And we’d be dumb to not acknowledge that. You shouldn’t marry someone you’re not comfortable talking to About difficult thi…

You shouldn’t marry someone you’re not comfortable talking to About difficult things. you keep saying that, but generally you can't know how your partner reacts until the issue actually comes up and especially with finances it rarely comes up before you start living together which often doesn't happen until you get married. it is impossible to vet your partner on every aspect. when you get married you start to build…

Albeit illegal in most places I've lived, I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for living with someone they aren't married to.

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#173

I think this strongly depends on the couple. My wife and I have had separate checking accounts for 20 years, and a shared savings account, and a second shared checking account we use strictly for transferring money back and forth (we can’t use savings for that due to stupid banking rules). We also have split the hills according to our relative incomes. I make a lot more so I have the mortgage and a few big ticket ite…

> Do what works for you. This study is saying couples randomly chosen to merge finances had better relationships, which doesn’t really align with your advice.

Relationships are about trust, not blind trust but a good history of verifiable trust.

we have less than “Do what works for you” is the pragmatic advice.

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It isn't controlling behaviour if you both have equal input into designing the budget, and both agree to and support the idea of having a budget in the first place.

If you read the post, it's clear that is not what happened here. OP set the budget. Wife did not follow it.

There’s a I’me assumptions that were made here. To clarify, we set the budget together.

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#175
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You shouldn’t marry someone you’re not comfortable talking to About difficult things. you keep saying that, but generally you can't know how your partner reacts until the issue actually comes up and especially with finances it rarely comes up before you start living together which often doesn't happen until you get married. it is impossible to vet your partner on every aspect. when you get married you start to build…

Albeit illegal in most places I've lived, I have never heard of anyone getting in trouble for living with someone they aren't married to.

i don't think it is actually illegal in many places, but that is not the point i am making. what matters is that many do not live together before they get married, and thus do not have the opportunity to get to know each other at that level, and, more importantly, can not be faulted for failing to know each other well enough to predict every possible problem that may come up in the future.

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#176
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

May I ask what specifically some of the issues have been? I know it's digging into a personal area so feel free to ignore this, but I'm curious what kind of issues can arise.

Issues can be categorized into three buckets: my challenges, her challenges, shared challenges. We're working through many of these with our couple's therapist but here's the gist: 1. When wife would spend beyond our defined budget, I would get angry (stemming from fear) and let that boil inside without ever communicating it verbally 2. When wife and I decided for her to quit her job to parent our first daughter full…

1. You have to communicate otherwise the other party doesn't know. However, this would be a huge deal for me.

2. I felt this pressure when we were deciding if my wife would stay home or if we would do daycare. I told her I don't want a pressure of single income. In the end daycare has been great for our kid. The feeling of pressure is completely normal. Single income to support a family clearly is more riskier than two incomes.

3. Your wife needs therapy. Budgeting is not controlling, it is basic personal finance. She can contribute to the budgeting discussion.

4. You also may need therapy. I too grew up poor and know the feeling. I know people who took that feeling, budgeted and became millionaires but one does need a healthy balance of spending and saving.

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#177

My observation of couples with split finances (my wife and I merged ours long ago) is that it doesn’t seem to prevent the kind of problems it nominally solves, and adds extra stress to the mix. If you are married to someone whose financial decisions you are incompatible with, there’s no escaping the fact that you’re going to be impacted by those decisions one way or another no matter what. Hiding them in a for-his/he…

I think it’s great to have a healthy relationship with trust. What if I told you that there was a strategy that had a 50% risk of what you think is trust is actually deceit. And that having separate finances helps immensely in the situation where this risk is realized. I have friends who were comfortable and thought all was well for years or even decades. Then it wasn’t. And having commingled finances was unpleasant…

I’ve been married for 53 years; we share our accounts and have never had any problems.

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#178

Wife and I have been together for 8+ years and finances is still the #1 area we struggle with (more than sex, more than children), an area we are actively working on improving. When we first had our hiccups, someone suggested we divide our finances as such: - A shared account (shared expenses) - An account (for my eyes only; buy whatever - no questions asked) - An account (for her eyes only; buy whatever - no questio…

My wife and I use a pretty simple system which we picked up from some friends of ours:

80% of each of our post-tax income goes into a shared account for stuff which is unambiguously 'shared' costs - for example rent, utilities, groceries, savings, stuff for our son, eating out together, etc.

We each keep 20% of our income to do what we want with. This fixes almost all feelings of inequality (I make a bit more than my wife. Personally I'm not that bothered, but my wife feels very strongly that she does not want to be 'supported' by my income, and that her disposable income should be based on her income, not our net income).

Every now and then we agree to move a cost into the 'shared' category even if it's clearly not a shared cost (e.g., my wife's phone bill comes out of the shared account because my phone bill is paid by my employer).

Sometimes we also 'treat' each other, by taking a cost like a dinner out together as a personal expense (often on pay day, for example).

As an exception to the above, my wife is on maternity leave at the moment so we agreed we'd just sum up all our incomings and each of us gets 10%. This is also working pretty well so we might not change it back after she starts working again, but we'll see if she raises this inequality thing again.

Obviously YMMV, but this system suits us well

Re: Couples with joint checking accounts are happier

#179
post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But this is not only predictable but acknowledged. It’s not ideal to fail to communicate and not realize it. It’s not ok to identify as someone who just doesn’t communicate and bottles up their emotions until they’re problematic. It might not be easy. But to do otherwise is a recipe for failure. And we’d be dumb to not acknowledge that. You shouldn’t marry someone you’re not comfortable talking to About difficult thi…

You shouldn’t marry someone you’re not comfortable talking to About difficult things. you keep saying that, but generally you can't know how your partner reacts until the issue actually comes up and especially with finances it rarely comes up before you start living together which often doesn't happen until you get married. it is impossible to vet your partner on every aspect. when you get married you start to build…

I’m not saying they should have predicted anything. I’m saying they should communicate. You don’t have to solve the problem. You do have to talk about your feelings.
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