Disclaimer – Before we go into this article, the information below assumes you and your partner have aligned financial goals. If you and your partner are not on the same page with money, please review my article on Reducing Money Arguments with your Spouse. Once you two are on the same page with money, we can move on to the article below.

Types of Accounts

As a married couple, many options exist for managing your bank accounts. We will first talk about the different types of couples accounts to consider:

• Joint account – Both partners can access and manage the money. Joint accounts are typically used to cover shared expenses like rent, utilities, groceries, and other household expenses.
• Separate accounts: You can also choose to keep your accounts separate. This can be useful for managing personal expenses like hobbies or gifts for family members.

Most couples will have a combination of both joint and separate accounts. For example, you could have a joint account for shared expenses and individual accounts for personal expenses. The key is to have open and honest communication with your spouse about the structure of your accounts and to come up with a plan for your accounts that works best for your union.

Splitting Household Expenses

As an advisor, there are so many ways I have seen couples manage their household expenses:

• 50/50 – Some split the bills down the middle, and each partner contributes 50% towards the household expenses.
• Proportional – If one partner earns significantly more than the other, you may want to split the bills proportionally to your income. For example, if one partner earns 60% of the total income, they can contribute 60% towards the expenses while the other partner contributes 40%.
• Bill Assignment – Couples predetermine who pays what bills. For example, someone will pay the mortgage while someone else will pay the car note. Both parties understand their assignment, and expenses are usually paid out of a separate account rather than a joint one.

Who Pays the Bills?

Next, couples must determine who will submit payment for each bill. This can be the same or a different person from who earns the money. I have seen a lot of cases where the breadwinner of the family is not the one who pays the bills. Here are three different ways you can handle who pays the bills:

• One partner pays all the bills and controls the finances for the couple
• Both partners have an assigned bill that they are responsible for managing
• More than likely, it will be a combination of the two

How couples determine who does what is all preference. Factors like who is better organized or enjoys handling finances contribute greatly to this decision. As a professional preference, I am a fan of a combination approach based on the couples’ individual dynamics.

The partner who does not have bill payment responsibilities should not be kept in the dark concerning the household bills. The bill-paying party should report back the status of all the bills and any challenges they have with managing everything. The non-bill-paying party is also responsible for looking for opportunities to improve the household finances, even though they are not the ones making the payments.

Couple’s Bank Account Structure

Now that we have the basics of managing money as a couple and you have decided with your partner the best way to handle the joint expenses, we can turn to setting up our bank accounts.

Recommendation

There are two bank account models I recommend couples follow

• Model One – This model is reserved for younger couples or couples where transparency and working together with money are important. Model One works when a couple’s spending habits are similar and they have a similar value system when it comes to money.  
• Model Two – Is for couples who come together later in life or whose spending values differ significantly. A large portion of the bills are usually paid separately, each has separate goals on what they want to do with their income, and/or they wish to retain some level of control over their finances. This approach can be useful for couples who want to maintain financial independence or have different financial goals and spending habits.