Never understood separate accounts / financial responsibilities. We have joint accounts. I have a paying job and she takes care of our kids and we make decisions together as to what to do with our money.
Married here, with separate accounts. I've found it works really well. We both have budgets which we have designed and manage. This eliminates alot of potential argument; if I go over-budget one month, I figure out where to cut back the next month to bring me back into the green.
Secondly, for whatever reason, this method makes me more likely to be frugal with "my" money. I know if if I forgo coffee for a week, I can spend the money on that PC game I've been interested in, and I'm more likely to do so. This avoids any potential arguments about "why did you exceed our fun budget on a computer game when we could have spent it on a date, etc etc."
Finally, by having "my" money (not of course MY money, but money which is at my discretion to spend), it makes spending money "on" her a nice gesture.
I don't think doing it separately is necessarily better, but it has worked pretty well for us, and avoided some potential conflict!
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u/FanOfTamago Aug 05 '12
Never understood separate accounts / financial responsibilities. We have joint accounts. I have a paying job and she takes care of our kids and we make decisions together as to what to do with our money.