When the dust settles after the ceremony, reception and second helpings of tiered wedding cakes, newly married couples in Canada must decide whether to join their banking.
Technically speaking, so long as the couple works together to achieve their goals as a team, they can do joint or separate banking. But, in my experience, the benefits of combining accounts, loans and assets outweigh the drawbacks. Read More…
My wife and I have been married for quite awhile, longer than most of you guys have been alive I’d venture. We never had separate accounts except where it is legally required like IRA’s. We honestly have seen every dollar we have as equally belonging to both of us. And when we are eyeing a discretionary purchase like a new cell phone or tennis racquet we let the other know before we spend the money unless it isn’t practical. We never have tried to restrict the other from making a purchase but we also have never been surprised by one because we talk before we spend. Plus it helps you be frugal when you have to tell the other, especially on impulse purchases. A lot of the time when I would tell my wife what I was wanting to do I’d realize how silly the expense sounded when I tried to explain it and would decide not to spend the money. It is kind of self regulating. We also aggregate 100% of our accounts and spending in Personal Capital with a shared password so we know exactly what we have and how we spent it. One reason to have everything joint is a little morbid but if one person should die in an accident then there is no extra stress to go through because everything continues to function just like it did before in a joint account. Mainly though I see it as making it difficult to have money secrets and marriage is not helped out by having secrets, especially money ones.
Been down that road. Ended up in divorce and our joint accounts ended up being very contentious.
If its possible i would recommend you'd always keep separate accounts AND a joint account where you each put into it. So when the inevitable happens there is less headache for both parties.
Yup our growing family has done that. RRSP and TFSA is all one. Best decision i made.
So when is the best time to start planning for this? After marriage? Before? What if a couple doesn't want to get married but just plan to start a family together while living together?
After reading the article i still see no benefit of joining. Please, someone help me out here.
Although it's worth discussing with your partner I don't think it works out for everyone. Everyone's situation is different.
We have a lot of investment accounts (liquid and fixed) and so trying to integrate them to be one entity usually involves closing down accounts and reopening.
Makes getting mortgages so much easier when you're married.
Something to think about. I've always considered the idea but have avoided "the talk" due to the nuisance of having to create new accounts and/or update old ones. Not fun.