Should You Combine Finances? 

As someone from Sudan ..I don't know what to do with most of the information I get from your videos , but I am enjoying it ... Keep it up

Name a better power couple. I'll wait

Looking at financial channels like this one has help me pay off all my debt besides my house. More millennials are becoming financially literate by watching RU-vid.

1 of 4 failed marriages are caused by money problems. It’s a real issue. Thanks for tackling such a sensitive topic in a world with a variety of non-traditional set ups. Great video!

Moral of the story: Write it down and have an organized plan, don't just argue about it every month.

My wife and I are far from traditional, but we've discussed money early in our relationship. She brought in student loans, where I had none. I knew that going in and agreed to tackle that together. We paid off her student loans together and are debt free aside from our mortgage. The way we share finances is we keep a certain amount of each paycheck to a personal account ($150/paycheck since we're paid on the same schedule) and the rest goes into a joint account to pay for the budget we've agreed on. I primarily do the finances and report back to my wife on the monthly reports (essentially). I don't question what she buys with her personal money and she doesn't question my personal expenses. We discuss larger joint purchases and how it will affect both of us (cars, trips, etc.). We also have a dedicated travel fund.

I always think of 4 accounts: two joint accounts- one for savings and the other for Bills and expenses. Two personal accounts-one for me and the other for her.

Conveniently Im getting married this month, so this came at the perfect time!

I feel like the causation between couples combining money and staying together might go the other way around too. Like couples who had healthier relationships are more likely to combine their resources?

We didn't have any problems sharing finances until we bought a house a couple of months ago. Now we're definitely going to try the envelope system you mentioned. Grill here we come

Married couples should combine finances, but only after making a joint budget that both agree on. Non married couples should never combine finances because the person has no legal right to the other person's stuff. Also, NEVER buy a home or car with someone else on the loan or title if you're not married to them.

Actually my grandparents, who were born in the 1920s, kept separate bank accounts and served as the example upon which I modeled my own separate finance system with my husband.

My mother payed for my father’s engineering degree, so that was a pretty good investment of her :P

Am I the only one that didn't know they were married!? I've been watching these videos for over a year and always thought they were just hosting together.

I'm glad you mentioned the possibility of abusive relationships. Thanks for keeping your advice and pros/cons discussion realistic

Love this concept of "fun money"! Trust is the foundation of any successful relationship! As always, great video!

My partner and I keep separate finances, and one joint account - we pay equally into that a little more than needed per month, and common expenses go out from that. Surplus can be used for holidays/saving/joint purchases. This means that we don't patrol each other's spending, & have spending independence.

I started collage later in life while my partner was almost done with her degree. So she was the bread winner, while I had a few part time jobs. After I finished mine the roles switched so that she was at home with the children. Now that they're getting to school age she's looking to get a new career.

They got me with the replay/guitar riff

Your method of having individual envelopes of "guilt free spending money" while having combined finances is EXACTLY what my wife and I do. This is the exact method I setup with my wife (then fiance) when we combined finances six years ago and it works great!

The wife and I have everything in a joint account with each getting a weekly allowance for our own spending. It really does allow us to do our own things without affecting the other. We've been budgeting this way for nearly 9 years now. We have gotten out of student loan debt ~$80k combined and nearly completely out of debt ~12 months away.

Before I watch this video, I want to say thank you, your channel is beautiful, the videos have high quality and you take the time to read and give us good information ... You are the best! I'm from Colombia an here we don't have access to this type of content in Spanish ... Please keep on doing this amazing contribution to the world!

thank you for making your channel so easy to understand, and entertaining. I just sent this to a bunch of my friends and partner. I am a teller, and sometimes people use this question at a bank a lot!

Thank you for this! I’ve been wondering what the best solution to this problem is, and your approach of a large shared pool with split “fun money” is right up my alley!

The positivity from you two while also showing what didn’t work out in the past and learning from it is what I enjoy the most about this series. Keep up the great work guys!

I was literally saying "causation vs. correlation" out loud when you addressed it!

My husband and I have been together 28 years and we have separate finances and do bill parsing. We very rarely have disagreements about money. There are some things I'm interested in and pay for, such as electronics and cable, and things he's interested in and pays for, such as landscaping and lawn care. Major purchases such as property or vehicles we split.

in my current relationship we keep our finances completely separate and we split bills 50/50. For me this is the way, my previous marriage was all in and she abused the money badly...took me through bankruptcy and financial ruin...to safeguard myself from that happening again I've kept my finances separate in all my relationships since.

We have it split 50/50: my wife earns the money, and I spend it!

"But I don't want Aunt Mildred's antique tea set!"

We actually had a conversation about this last night. I'm a saver and he's a spender. I'll show this to him.

My husband recommended me your video, and I was hooked. In fact now I know where most of his knowledge come from. You give amazing information, that is concise, relevant, so well formulated and presented. We have significantly cut down on eating out , which anyway we felt out of habit not really so much fun. Thank you so much!

Thank you for creating this type of videos. It really sparks easy-going discussions in our relationship and inspires for joint strategies that ultimately forge us together even deare

I just love how informative and research-heavy your videos are! Great job!

When my wife and I started budgeting, I felt resentment, being the spender in the relationship. The BEST thing we did with our monies, aside from saving as much as we can (the result of a big attitude shift), was including equally-funded allowance catagories. Now we can save like crazy and I can fund my hobbies without having every purchase "approved" by my better half.

Been married 27 years. We combined finances on day one. We've never had any money problems. BUT, whatever you decide to do in your relationship, you have to talk about it! It's all about communication. My wife and I discussed this in detail before we were married just to make sure we were on the same page. Honestly, I probably wouldn't marry a woman unless we agreed on most things financially. People underestimate just how important the topic of money is in your life.

Its always a messy situation when I have divorced/separated clients trying to unmerge their finances in banking, so much pettiness between people purposely overdrafting the account or refusing to come in to sign paperwork :(

My wife and I shared a checking account in the beginning. That lasted about a month. She went nuts and paid ALL the bills--even ones that weren't due until after the next paycheck. We had no money for groceries, or gas, or anything. After that, we went back to separate checking accounts and that was much better.

We keep our finances separate and have for 20 years! Keeps us honest about spending. Sink or swim with the bills....neither one of us wants to be the sinker!

Short answer is no keep assets and liabilities separate. The why is a long list of pros

I would keep a separate acct too

buen video y buena informacion...gracias 2 centavos

We use named bank accounts instead of envelopes, that way we don’t have to use cash. We have accounts for: Groceries Car maintenance Vacation Home maintenance Property taxes Kids Stuff Gifts/Holidays Household Bills Wife Spending $ Husband Spending $ Savings/Investments (this is a registered investment account) When we get paid we move all of the money from our checking account into the various (named) bank accounts. Whatever is left over we divide 50/50 between savings and vacation. When we buy anything we put it on visa and immediately (like in the parking lot of the store) move the $ from the right account into checking and pay it as a bill payment using online banking on our phones. That way we have balances for each account in real time, and we never owe anything on our credit card. If we don’t have $ in a category we stop spending or move money around if we have extra (ie extra grocery $ might be used to pay for gas). We know ahead how much goes in each account and what our bills are for that pay period, and we periodically review how much were spending in each category and if we’re happy with that. We’ve been married 3 years and it works great for us! Our own spending $ (we each get $100 per week) is ours to do whatever we like with, no questions asked. Otherwise we discuss everything.

I know a couple. She moved with him, he told her that the place was rented, so she paid half of rent. After a year she discovered that he was the owner of the house, so she paid rent to him.

Combining incomes for married people is the way to go, but I love that idea of guilt-free fun money for each person. Best of both worlds indeed!

Totally agree still trying to figure out HOW to budget jointly.

This early and not even notification squad #RU-vidIsMyLife

Good advice! Definitely worth passing onto people diving Into deeper relationships! Thanks for the great videos!

I'm the sole breadwinner while my husband is in professional school, and we have a hybrid approach. We have a joint account for bills and living expenses, but we both also kept our personal accounts from when we were single. We both get an "allowance" direct deposited into our personal account each paycheck to spend or save however we want. It really helps provide some sense of independence and prevents us from having to micromanage each other's spending.

Great video as always! Thanks for sharing! 👍🏾

love this video and also you two as a team!!

I've always had my name on everything since my wife and I got married only because I'm the sole bread winner of the family. We even have a house together and growing family, but it's all in my name because it's easier for the paperwork when you go solo. Again, that's only because I'm the sole bread winner. She's never brought a dime to our marriage after five years, but her time is worth every penny.

I haven't even had a partner in 3 years....welp, can't hurt to watch this video anyways

NO, HELL NO! I was married and knew my wife could not handle money. We got divorced after she ran off, but she could not get into my bank accounts. It saved me.

My wife and I met after we had already been working for quite some time. Having individual and joint accounts has worked out well so far.

100% Agree. We did a hybrid approach like yours 20 years ago. Joint savings for all our share expense, house, children retirement, etc. And separate checking account where we both get the same amount of allowance/fun money. Most other finance gurus such as Suze Orman and Kevin O'Leary recommend the separate but proportional approach which is not practical and here's why. Suppose the higher earner (2:1) contributes twice as much into their combined 30 years mortgage and utility bills. Theoretically the higher earner (H.E.) also able to contributes twice as much into their own 401k and IRA and through compounding achieved FIRE in 20 years. Right or wrong, H.E. retires before the lower earner (L.E.). What kind of marriage or union would that be while one enjoying life and watch the other one work and can't retire together? And now that H.E. retire and has no to low income compare to the original L.E., does L.E. now have to pay for the higher proportion of their mortgage and therefore further delaying L.E.'s retirement? Even if they somehow retire at the same time and suppose the HE has 1 million in their retirement account while the LE only has 500k, does that mean HE can have steak dinner while LE can only afford burgers? With this mentality, it is no wonder there's a higher divorce rate for those who insist on keeping separate accounts. If you're fully committed to marriage, you shouldn't let finance get in the way. Having separate accounts and calculating to the pennies is equivalent to having the emergency exit for your marriage. While you hope not to use it, its an easy escape when you need it and therefore less likely to work things out. That's my 2 cents. :-)

Love you guys!

My parents have both combined and separate finances and I want to be like that. They put X amount into a shared account for bills, but keep the rest in their own accounts for their own spending. Mom was a spender, Dad was a saver. Mom became more saver over time, but before that, she was pretty financially damning to him.

My husband and I have a joint bank account where both of our paychecks get deposited. We also have a joint emergency savings account. All of the bills get paid from the joint account and we put away about $600 a month into the emergency savings. We usually have about $500-$700 left over so we split it evenly for our personal accounts. We’ve been doing this for about 8 years now and it really works 🤩

I'm worried about losing my independence. Then again, It makes sense to pool resources.

We use the bill parsing method right now. Not married but live together, we split rent, I buy groceries, internet, and small misc household items, she pays utilities and half of rent. Works out about the same. Some months I pay more (summer) and others she pays more (winter b/c utilities increase). Overall it works out.

I just gotta say thank you two so much. You’ve really made a big impact on my life. This video is the reason I’m married now! It sparked our conversation about the future and well the rest is history.

I'm so glad I found this channel! Thank you for creating an amazing channel with great visuals and reliable information!

Call me old fashioned, but why would you marry someone you can't even share finances with? If I can't trust you with my money, then I can't trust you with the rest of my life.

We do the same as y'all! Individual fun money and shared finances. Loved hearing more about this topic!

Always been single, but still great advice that I may need someday!

correlation / causation on the study where people broke up because they didn't pool finances. Researchers saying the quoted text doesn't mean the study proved that there was a causation. Loved the video overall, especially the guy's facial expressions while the girl was talking towards the end haha

It's always nice to hear someone recommending the system you are using for years (the fun money) :D tip: Combine this with an extra account for fixed yearly costs and an automatic saving account and you have a killer system!

All throughout my first marriage, my wife loved to say I was being abusive about the finances. All because I didn't think she needed to replace her 2004 Honda with a brand new 2007 Lexus. We made a combined income of 48,000 a year at the time and I was driving a 1987 Cadillac DeVille. Now we're divorced and I heard from her brother (who's been a close friend since 3rd grade) she's in deep debt on her credit card and her car payment. Meanwhile I still drive the 87 Cadillac

IMO: say combine when married, there is no mine or yours. You should be living your lives together and not holding things over each other's head i.e. I paid for that, you owe me. But again, IMO

I was with my ex for 18 years. Once we got married we combined all of our money. Over the years there were times he made more and other times I made more. There was also a 2 1/2 year period he was out of work. Our shopping habits were completely different. I purchase more frequently and he used to purchase less frequently but large $$. It caused us issues at different points in our marriage. I don’t know what I would do in my next serious relationship, however I know it will be a more intentional decision. Combining finances just because that is what I grew up with is something I won’t do again. I think having open honest conversations about money is the most important.

Doing the "proportional earnings approach" with my husband. It's working great :) I would get so frustrated with his spending habits, if we had a shared account. But the reason I'm writing is to say thank you for including LGBT+ and people of color in your animations. Please continue :)

I love your videos. I hope you will be posting for a long long time.

One word: Splitwise.

The model you suggested is really practical and reduces problems. I love it.

My wife's money is her money. My money is our money

great show you guys have built ,loved it

A little bit of both. I wanted combined and my husband wanted separate. So we compromised and we have separate accounts and transfer money to a joint account that’s used for bills and a joint savings account. This way whatever is left over in our account after we transfer money is our own to spend how we please. Best of both worlds.

When I was growing up my father and mother shared finances and there was no question about it. My father worked full time while mother was home during the week and Friday and Saturday my mother worked as an RN from 11 p.m to 7 a.m When we got older my mother started working full time and I will never forget when my mother told me that because the shortage of nurses and increased pay that she was making more than my father, but that it did not matter because it was a team effort.😊

*These are great tips for any couple since money is a leading cause of arguments and divorce.* 👍

Aaawwww thank you for sharing this video. Really it will solve many future problems.

Marriage sounds like scary business x.x, cool video though.

Wife and I have joint money with personal checking accounts. We have one family checking account into which 95% of our money goes in via direct deposit. We then have two additional checking accounts, one for her, one for me. 2.5% of our money goes into each of these in the form of an allowance. We are not accountable to one another for our personal accounts. We have joint and separate money. Never had a single problem about finances in 10+ years being married. The allowance can be adjusted as you make more or less money or as expenses change, since it's percentage based. I'm the breadwinner, she's a stay at home non paid mother. I've yet to see a better way to handle finances as a couple and this video with the cutest couple ever confirms what we've been doing for a decade!

In the end, it all comes down to trust.

Thank you two cents you really help me a lot.

Well, for the reasons to share finances, they are not very compelling as they could all be done by proper communication and coming to agreements about big items. For instance in the case of buying a home, as long as we are both in agreement to pitch in 50% of the down payment, we can still keep separate accounts and figure out on our own how we are going to meet that goal. Same goes for retirement. An agreement needs to be worked out as to what we are shooting for, but after that it's far easier to optimize your own life to meet that goal, rather than combined accounts that make accountability harder.

My fiance is stay at home mom, we don't make much and we just combined finances to better budget and ensure she shares the income. We are in the same page when it comes to finances, and will be saying good bye to debt within the next two months. When our income increases and we have room in the budget for spending money we will have separate spending accounts to ensure we have independence when it comes to fun money. We have been together and lived together long enough,and discuss and work together to get tackle all problems as one. The move to combine all finances at this time just made the most sense to us.

As a couple, we had separate finances. Once we got married a year ago, we started to combine. It's still a work in progress, but that is the direction we are heading. We're older with complex finances, so it's taking time. We were both burned badly financially and in other ways during previous marriages. As Christians, it's part of the "two shall become one." It makes all the difference in the world to have a common vision and total trust.

You guys are a joy and wisdom to learn from. Thanks

Don’t know why I’m watching this, I never even had a girlfriend at 23 🤣 Two cents, I am an investor/ aspiring entrepreneur. Why is it difficult to talk about finance to society ? what do you think of prenup?

I learned a lot in one night. Thanks guys!

The acknowledgment of diversity of the animated couples was a great reflection of the real world, thank you. Subbed.

The only time I have ever opened a joint-checking account, it was with an emotionally abusive ex-boyfriend who threatened to kill himself if I didn't stay with him (amongst other manipulative traits). I was the only one working for months, so when he finally got job, we opened the account and I put up the inital deposit ($2,000 to cover the next few months of bills while waiting for his paycheck). He cleared me out and left the next day. Since we weren't married, and the account was in his name as well, there was nothing I could do. I HIGHLY advise against openening a joint checking account with anyone before you two are married. Now, I'm married to a wonderful man, but we just split all the bills 50-50 and e-transfer each other our halves of whatever needs to be paid. We've opened a joint-savings to eventually buy a house; but aside from that, we keep the rest of our income in separate accounts (unless one of us needs help one month). We go over our bills together every month to make sure it's fair, and we file our taxes together; but aside from that -- he's free to spend his money how he chooses, and so am I. I think the mixed approach works best, like you said!

Thanks for this advice. I love you both.

When my husband and I got married, we became one. That includes finances! It helps because we are both on the same page to budgeting. Being on the same page is KEY!

Thank you Two cents! Love your videos so much! 💓

I loved how the example animations were all inclusive 😊

Both my husband and I grew up with parents fighting about money all the time; neither ended well and both sets gave us their own advice. We decided to do the opposite and join everything 100% to be absolutely transparent. I wish I had asked about his debt prior to marrying him (he had $6k in cc debt that we had to take care of first) but we worked it out. It took us awhile to figure out an organizational system that works for both of us but we did and still work at it regularly. We are not penny pinchers but we know where our money goes more or less and have access to each others accounts. We try to have bimonthly financial check ins to look at all of our accounts and pay off what we used in credit; we also try to have quarterly (usually semiannually) power budget meetings were we look at our financial status over the last few months. It has been super helpful to do this and we are always learning ways to improve. Love couples and advice like this to help me build a better life.

"than ANY other previous generations" Neanderthals: am I a joke to you?

Husband and I started sharing finances when we started living together, cos we had to save up about three months worth of combined wages to get us through the summer months every year (we were non contract teachers) He also had a lot of debt, and trouble with his visa so very early in our relationship we tackled both of those problems. Once we got married (and had more stable jobs that paid us over the summer months) we knew we each wanted to save up personal money for personal goals, so while we split living expenses, we didn't put a lot into the joint account. A few weeks ago we went back to the drawing board cos we want to move country again and buy a home in my home country. Financial independence is still really important to us, but so is working as a unit we are also working to having it both ways :)