Our Life on Christ

Sunday, November 27, 2011

5 Reasons Why You Should Have a Joint Checking Account!

Happily Wedded Wednesdays



Once upon a time I was a shop-aholic. I bought clothes, shoes, purses, and accessories and then hid them! The first time I would sport said item, Wil would ask me when I got it and I would reply, "Wow. I've had this for a long time. You really never notice anything about me!" Horrible.

Those were the days before we had a joint checking account.

We recently completed Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. He highly recommends having a joint checking account and so do we.

The Great Things About Joint Checking


  1. You have to communicate: Good communication is vital in any marriage. Disputes about money is one of the top causes of divorce. If you are able to effectively talk about your finances, your marriage will be healthier and you will be better equipped to communicate about anything.
  2. It forces you to be disciplined: If you and your spouse agree that you will each get to spend $25 per week on whatever you want, you can't decide that you will spend more because a sweater at Macy's is on sale for $49.99. You may have to deny yourself sometimes but it will be for a great purpose: more discipline in your finances (which will spill into other areas of your life) and a more trusting marriage, which leads to my next point..
  3. You will trust each other more: If your whole paycheck is going into an account that you share with someone else, one of two things will happen: you will either learn to trust your co-account holder beyond all imagination OR you will get ripped off. Let's be optimistic, shall we? You will not get ripped off.
  4. You can actually get your money in order: You and your spouse are ONE. Well, you're supposed to be. You are one household. Why not operate your finances as if you were one household? It is so much easier to get all the money in order and move forward with saving, paying bills, etc when there is only one checking account to worry about.
  5. No  more "I'll pay you back ...": Again, you are ONE! How can you pay yourself back?! It makes me laugh when I hear couples saying, "She stills owes me $75 from when I paid for her cell phone," or, "He owes me $50 for the water bill." You are one. Act like it!

    The Not-So-Great Things About Joint Checking

    1. You can't go on shopping binges, hide your treasures, then accuse your spouse of never paying attention to you.

    Do you and your spouse share a checking account? Why or why not? Have you found a joint account helpful in your marriage? Or are you apprehensive about combining your money?

    9 comments:

    1. [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Anji Mabon, Anji Mabon. Anji Mabon said: Happily Wed Wednesdays: Why YOU Should Have a Joint Checking Account! http://ow.ly/37x6T [...]

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    2. I finally figured out how to comment on your site! Yay!

      Interesting post; we have a joint account and I have my own. I do think it requires communication, but I particularly like the fact that it provides one place to manage all of our household bills.

      Bonus: Trust, I am happy that my husband trusts me enough to put his salary in my control, you know I'm OCD!LOL!

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    3. Yea! I'm glad you figured it out!!

      Yes, having a joint account makes it much easier to manage bills...and the trust HAS to be there for it to work!

      LOL @ you being OCD...I know that! :)

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    4. When i was married I had a joint account AND individual accounts. Both paychecks go into the joint account then after bills are paid play money is transferred into the individual ones. I like any idea that pushes transparency into a relationship.

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    5. Yes, transparency in a relationship is a great thing, man! The funny thing about us is that we had separate accounts and I used to be "in charge" of the finances (making sure that the right bills were paid). Anji was terrible at managing her money. Don't get me wrong, she knew how to balance a check book (not that she ever took the time to do it) and how to pay bills but she just loved to shop and she lived off the principle that God would make everything okay. Wow, how crazy was she?

      Now she's great, she actually handles about 98 percent of our finances.

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    6. Yes, transparency is always good in a marriage. I like your idea about joint and individual accounts. It would be more than I wanted to manage personally but it's a great idea!

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    7. We've tried the joint account thing and the individual account thing. I hate to admit that having a joint account work best, we plan to go back to that very soon. It will mean death to all of my shopping, even though I've gotten out of the habit of hiding stuff. I'm at a whole new level, "I work and I can shop when I want to", but I'm looking forward to saving and being in a better position finanicially, which means that I'm going to say goodbye to the latter attitude. Pray for me ;-).

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    8. Hey De'Vonna, I very happy for you. I hope that financially you see surplus once you minimize the shopping, I hope that the increase will encourage you to stay committed. It's definitely not easy for people to change especially after they have been doing something over a given period of time. But I'm confident that you guys will be successful and your marriage will see tremendous growth. At least with the communication piece because when you share accounts you have to communicate to know what the other person is doing. Good Luck!

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