Ask:
Hello! I would like to hear some of your feedback(s)/suggestion(s) about separate checking/saving account between the spouse - is that good idea or does it helps a lot to budget your management every month to pay the bills/mortgage/car notes? The reason I post this thread is because I was very stressful/furious when my husband quit work at Target due to work hours was cut down without any explaination from the boss and decided to find other new job under the temporary agency which don't pay that much.
I work for government for 11 years (June) and I am breadwinner in the household - I always become very furious/stressful when he quits many jobs during our 7 marriage years and I expressed out to him how I feel about it. It is very hard for me to deal with his "quit habit" for long time until our son comes in our life and he sometime don't think that have the baby is not cheap to feed/support until he becomes 18 years old. Plus we have several debts/IRS that we need to pay them off so we can buy a first-time home and that is my dream to move in our own home rather than throw the money out of window every month toward the landlord.
I am thinking about go ahead to open my own checking/saving accounts at other bank so my husband can have his at our current bank, but I know it will be hard to establish the budget to pay the bills/rent/babysitter/car notes. I will not give up until we could figure out whos pay.
Sorry about this long message and it does make me feel good to express this out of my chest!
Answer:
The way I feel about Married money is that it is all considered OUR money. We have just one joint account and I never would ever consider having seperates. Some people make them work but it is less complex with one. I think you need to have a long talk with your husband get on the same page with the budget. You need to have savings goals and he needs to grow up and reallize that he needs to keep a job to be able to meet those goals. I see deviding tasks like I pay the rent and you pay the water bill and I pay the phone bill as silly. It is your married money and it doesn't matter who makes what or who pays what as long as you are going toward your common agreed apon goals.
Answer:
Actually I was just one the phone with the bank today and we only have one account now but next week we are setting up one for me and a joint for both of us. This is only because I can actually get some type of "plus" account with the added benefits of online bill pay. I have him deposit the money all into that account and I will see how much we need in there for bills and then transfer the rest to our joint account, that way we both have access to the spending money and the bill money never gets spent.
Answer:
I think that it is healthy for a married couple to have one account that they deposit their money into and pay bills from. It is your money as a couple and shouldn't be viewed as yours and mine. However, it is also good to have an account for each person to use as their discretionary spending account. My DH has his main paycheck deposited into our joint account and his paycheck from coaching soccer as his discretionary funds that he has his own account for...I want him to be able to spend this on whatever frivilous stuff he'd like : ) Right now my paycheck also goes into our joint account, but when I become a SAHM mom any money I earn from selling stuff on craigslist, etc. will go into my discretionary account.
It seems like your situation is less about separate accounts and more about your husband quitting his job. Does he see/know the budget details, pay bills, and the like or do you manage all of that? Maybe he really doesn't know how important his income is to maintaining your standard of living?
Answer:
It seems like your situation is less about separate accounts and more about your husband quitting his job. Does he see/know the budget details, pay bills, and the like or do you manage all of that? Maybe he really doesn't know how important his income is to maintaining your standard of living?[/quote]
That is why I have to have us to sit down and go over our budget to discuss more about it. I manage all of that and sometime get furious to catch up pay the bills.
Answer:
I am a firm believer in separate accounts. My DH and I NEVER fight about finances, we both keep separate accounts and have 1 joint savings account for large savings. It works very well for us.
Answer:
Thank you all ladies for your feedbacks/suggestions and I am going to sit down with my husband to go over our budget to see what we need to do to improve our budget management so we could start to save up the money.