Bank Accounts - Should you Combine Them?

Should you combine your bank accounts when you get married? This is a very common question among those who are newlywed. And it’s a very good question that needs to be considered.

But before you can actually answer this question, you need to consider a few other things first:

• Can you honestly trust each other with money like this? Now, you’ve just gotten married and obviously you can trust each other, but there is a difference between trust and financial trust.
• Is one person a saver and one person a spender?
• Does one of you spend your money just as quickly as you get it?
• Does one of you save your money and only spend what you absolutely have to?
• Is one of you debt free and the other one not debt free? Or do you both have debts that you are bringing to the marriage?
• Is one person a good financial manager and the other person not a good financial manager?
• Do you balance your checkbook regularly?
• Does one person make significantly more money than the other?

The two of you need to sit down and honestly answer these questions with each other before you consider combining your bank accounts.

And when you do consider, or just combine your bank accounts, think about how you spend and how the money the two of you have is going to be spent.

If you have a joint account, is the person who balances the account going to get ticked off when the other person spends money on the little things each day? Or makes big purchases without communicating it first?

We currently live in a time where a lot of couples are NOT combining their bank accounts. Each person is keeping their own personal account, but giving the other person authorized access. And they may be opening a third account between them for the joint bills like rent or mortgage, utilities, phones, and food.

There is no clear cut answer to whether or not you should or shouldn’t combine your bank accounts. It is based on each individual marriage for whether you should combine your bank accounts.

BUT, you do have to talk about money with each other throughout the entire life of your marriage. It’s not always going to be easy, but the more you talk about money with each other, the easier your talks will get.