Sunday, October 11, 2009

Married : Combine or Seperate Account ?


One of the common questions asked by recently married couple is "should we combine our bank accounts or keep them separate ?"

The quick answer is to have combined accounts when you are newlywed. Later down the marriage path, you may want to keep them separates. As jokingly as it may sound, you may eventually find it very truthful too.

The longer or more philosophical answer is to keep some accounts private and some other accounts joint.
Your account is Yours,
My account is Mine,
Our account is Ours.
All 3 are DIFFERENT ENTITIES, they are NOT suppose to get mix up. Suppose each person already has her own account before marriage. So yours is yours and mine is mine, there shouldn't be any confusion there to start with. After marriage, each individual just add a new Automated Saving Stream into the newly created joint account. Thats about it.

6 comments:

ChampDog said...

It looks like this is my policy:

1) My account is ours.
2) Your account is ours.
3) Our account is ours.

Mt. said...

then that means there is only one isn't it

1) all accounts are ours

:)

Anonymous said...

I know there is no way we can split out the joint account once it is joint. It has to be abandoned and reopen a personal one in future. Such a hassle. Speaking of which, Can you advice on what to do with a saving of rm30k?

I am starting a new life, should i invest into a buying a place to live, a car to drive, or investment or simply just go traveling and buy anything i want? Right this moment I would say I am a simple person and I dont mind renting a room, taking public transportation ... i plainly dont see that i need to use the money for anything... and I know it might sounds weird or maybe u will reply with a weird answer too... :) Whatever, i will try checking out for your reply. Thanks for reading and replying!

Mt. said...

what a nice random comment :)

you can move ur 30k in FD, Bond fund and gold accounts :)

or just sponsor malpf.com to grow into her teenage years ...

by the way you leave your comment, it seems like you really need a travel ... which is marked as the 2nd worst thing to do in malpf personal finance ...

so I would suggest you not to travel far far, look around where you are now, there are some places you can stay for free ... most other ppl who stay there need helps, but instead ... you help them. hopefully you will find it a not-too-bad journey after all ...

Anonymous said...

Cool. Thanks for your sentimental reply.

Are you telling me that a property or a car is not a good choice of investment? For time being or just a worse choice than those 4 choices u gave me?

So for those 4 choices, i know you advice ppl to split the fund as in earlier posts, but what if Im lazy, so can i just choose one? I didnt know malpf needs a fund to run although I d wish it could go on publishing forever :)

Any tips on property/car? Someone told me the only good time to buy these at lower price would only come next June, is that so?

Solitude journey is a yes but not helping others anymore while im trying to empty myself at the moment. But thanks, it is cool.

Mt. said...

car is a NO NO, property is ok if you practice this "solid foundation method", in which, timing become less important. Sorry I don't have specific entry time for property investment. I myself keep my eye open all years round ...