Love and Money: Why More Couples Are Keeping Separate Bank Accounts
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Here's your money briefing for Monday, July 29th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Traditionally, couples pooled their finances together in joint accounts to pay the bills. But in many modern-day relationships, people are taking a different approach.
Couples today are looking for more flexibility and fairness in managing their finances. Many find that a 50-50 split isn't always practical, especially when there's a significant income disparity. And keeping separate accounts allows each partner to maintain financial independence. while also contributing fairly to any shared expenses that the family has.
Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown will join us after the break.
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Where does the episode introduce the trend of couples keeping separate bank accounts?
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More couples are keeping their money in separate bank accounts. Wall Street Journal reporter Dalvin Brown joins me. Dalvin, where are we seeing separate accounts among partners most often?
We're seeing this trend most often among younger generations. So Gen Z and millennials are more likely to keep separate accounts compared to older generations. A creditcards.com poll found that a significant number of younger adults prefer to manage their finances independently. And Experian data shows a decline in the number of joint credit card accounts per couple over the decade, reinforcing this trend.
Traditionally, couples split expenses 50-50. Why are people today keeping their money separate?
Couples today are looking for more flexibility and fairness in managing their finances. Many find that a 50-50 split isn't always practical, especially when there's a significant income disparity. And keeping separate accounts allows each partner to maintain financial independence while also contributing fairly to any shared expenses that the family has.
So if the money is not being split down the middle, how are they dividing it up?
There's a plethora of different ways that people are dividing expenses up. One of the things that I found interesting that I talked about in my story was that more people are choosing 60-40. So they're deviating from 50-50, but they're not going too far away from that. But it also leaves room for people who make more or less money than their partners.
Yeah, it also involves a lot of math. How are they keeping track of all these numbers?
Technology is sort of like the third person in the relationship. They're using Excel spreadsheets to monitor how much they are each contributing to the household expenses. They're using apps like Splitwise or Monarch, bill managing platforms. And they're also using these platforms to communicate with one another about money if an expense pops up that they've noticed that their partner hasn't paid or something shows up that they're unfamiliar with. They're communicating through some of these apps as well. Because it's easier to have the conversation virtually than it is to talk about money in real life, it seems.
And don't nickel and dime your partner on Venmo. You talked about that with us before.
Yeah. And I think that's also why more people are choosing 60-40. Because if you go with a ratio that's very exact, it may come across as petty or as if you're nickel and diming your partner. And no one wants that.
What do financial advisors suggest regarding how couples' finances should be organized?
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