Your wedding day is the day that you promise to share your heart, love and life with the person that means everything to you. Does that include sharing your bank account, though? There are so many opinions about this matter, and it essentially becomes the responsibility of each couple to decide on how they will [...]

Your wedding day is the day that you promise to share your heart, love and life with the person that means everything to you. Does that include sharing your bank account, though?

There are so many opinions about this matter, and it essentially becomes the responsibility of each couple to decide on how they will handle their joint finances. This decision needs to be made long before the actual wedding day, though, so that you both agree and are comfortable with how you will be handling financial issues in the future. Many marriages break up over financial disagreements, making this an even more important matter to sort out.

There are three main alternatives from which couples can choose:

1. We will share everything
2. We will share nothing
3. “Yours, mine and ours”

If you, as a couple, decide to share everything, this usually translates to your personal information, group of friends, hobbies, religious ideals, etc… This can be the ideal arrangement for some and disastrous for others. There is no right or wrong answer here.

If you have each agreed not to share your bank accounts or finances at all, you will need to pay for your own hobbies, clothing, phone accounts, cars, insurance, etc… on an individual scale. You might decide beforehand who will be responsible for paying the groceries, rent, school fees, medical aid, and so on. The amounts due should correspond to each person’s income and capabilities. There can also be a joint account into which spare money is deposited for a savings fund.

Thirdly, you could share certain expenses, but take individual responsibility for others. Individual costs may include things like clothing, nights out without your spouse, trips to the beauty salon, and so on. Shared expenses would go to items such as groceries, school fees, holidays, etc…

To decide on the best course of action for the two of you, ask yourselves the following questions (the answers are most revealing):

1. Does my spouse have a bad credit record?
2. Will sharing finances make one or both of us feel more secure in the relationship?
3. Do I feel cramped or controlled by the idea of losing a portion of my independence?
4. Am I or my partner worried about the other one hiding expenditures?
5. Do we have the same attitude towards saving and spending money?
6. Do we both want to be involved in managing our household’s finances or does one person want to take control?
7. Do I or my spouse have a particular hobby or interest that the other does not want their money being spent on?
8. Do I have something I want to hide from my spouse when it comes to spending money?

There are benefits and drawback to each of the aforementioned options. It is up to the couple to make the final decision.

Joint account benefits include:

• You save on separate bank charges
• Transparency
• It cultivates a sense of unity
• Convenience

Separate accounts benefits include:

• Less potential guilt, as you are spending your own money
• Greater control over your own responsibilities