Friday, February 19, 2010

I'm back at $5000

well not actually, but I have $160.00 being transferred from my checking to my TD Ameritrade Account on Monday that will bring my savings up to $5000. Yeah!!! For me!

I also actually got a refund from my school that I am transferring to my Emergency Fund next week and with my automatic Transfer on March 5, will bring my emergency fund up to $7000.

I also got a great idea from a fab blogger that I have been reading lately, Chitown over at Windy City Blues. After I reach my $10000 goal which will probably be before my wedding, I am going to start a small joint emergency fund with my fiance of $2500, in a money market account at our local credit union.

Essentially that will grow to become our emergency fund...and my savings will just be extra savings.

This brings me to a question that I have been pondering.

Should married couples have separate checking or savings, joint checking and savings, or a combination of both?

until next time, think prosperous thoughts

YBP

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I'll try to make this short :)
I'm been married for 10.5 months now.

We have a joint checking account that we call the main account (and savings). And I have my own checking account. Reason being: so that I don't have to keep track of money allotted to me for shopping, etc in the main account, I have it sent to my account and I can spend it as I wish...without having to keep track of it as bills are paid, etc. Also, when I buy my husband gifts he can't see it!

I have savings accounts at ING, so does he, as well as joint ING accounts (efund, vacay, car). I use mine to save up for purse I want or for gifts to him.

Hope that helps!

Anonymous said...

And congratulations on your upcoming wedding!!!!

FB @ FabulouslyBroke.com said...

Found you!

You WERE in my reader. I just had to find out where you were located :\

Congrats on the upcoming wedding.

As for the checking accounts and such, we each have or own and we write cheques to each other monthly (I should say, *I* write cheques to him monthly to cover the 50%)

it works out a lot better than a joint account

Unknown said...

You know, I'm a divorce attorney, and the thing that I've seen since I've been doing this is that wholly separate accounts tend to always lead to a feeling of "this is mine," never "this is ours." I know it can work, but I see a much greater percentage of people who divorce for financial reasons who always kept separate accounts and didn't check in with the other to find out what was going on. They never asked if their spouse needed help paying anything, if bills were higher than normal (heck, most of the time they didn't bother opening the bill if it was the other spouses responsibility), and they didn't save as well as those with more joint accounts.

Take that to mean what you want. My fiancee and I have a joint account to cover joint expenses, and separate accounts for personal expenses. Once we're married, we plan to keep the separate accounts for our individual "blow money," and put everything else into the joint account.

Chitown said...

Not married here but I will still put in my 2 cents. Hey...I'm a lawyer. =)

I think a joint account is good for joint expenses and savings. It's good to sit down and make sure you're on the same page about the bills and the amount each of you need to deposit into the account on a monthly basis including savings. Then the remainder of your check/income can go into your personal checking accounts.

Best wishes!!! =)

Anonymous said...

I am all for the his, mine and ours account. The individual accounts are just blow money accounts that each person can handle they way they want. The joint account is were "WE" make the decisions about "OUR" life and future together.

i like what the lawyer said.