Quote:
Originally Posted by bluck
As I get closer to perhaps taking that plunge into marriage, I did have a few questions I was hoping to get some input on from people may have come across similar situations.
1. Bank Accounts/Finances - Do you tend to keep separate accounts and have a joint account which you each contribute for bills/groceries/daily living necessitates etc? Or do you merge your accounts into one? Also...
- Let's say I make 100K and she makes 50K would you still split the day to day expenses evenly or would whoever makes more be expected to contribute more to the household?
2. Housing - I own my own condo, it's paid off, no debt. My name is on the title. Would I be expected to put her on the title to make it "joint" at some point in time? This is honestly something that concerns me the most and something I am not comfortable with, heaven forbid something happens and we split up and she owns half of my biggest asset.
3. Off topic question but what the hell - Did you ask your spouses father for permission to marry or did you just say to hell with that tradition?
Thanks all for your input in advance.
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1) I have a spreadsheet with all our joint expenses, groceries, mortgage, insurance, utilities, etc. These expenses get paid out of a joint account that both of us contribute to proportionally to our salary. Things like eating out, going to the pub, and vacations are not core expenses. We each have our own investments, but the taxes are done together and the return goes into the joint account. This works well for us, but since we started having kids more and more of my cheque goes into the core expenses and very little is left over for me.
2) When we were dating and she first moved into my house, I charged her rent and kicked out my other roommate. My friends made fun of me for charging her rent, but heck she had a good job and she paid the same rent as she did at her other place even though mine was way better. Just before we got married the mortgage was up and we refinanced for wedding & renovation money in both our names. The mortgage advisor made some comment to me that the house would be considered the matrimonial residence, i.e. I'm screwed either way. That is probably going to be the same with you. She'll own half your house if you put her on the title or not, it just makes it easier if you die if she's on the title.
Fortunately, my wife is super frugal and money has never been an issue for us. I hear horror stories about guys who's wives max out their credit card to get into some MLM scheme.
3) I did ask, but after I proposed. Her Dad said it wasn't necessary, but yes he gave his blessing. Her parents are super cool. Her mom told me once that she tells everyone that my wife didn't just get a diamond when she married me, but the whole mine. I have a buddy who's parents made him ask, but he didn't do it until minutes before the ceremony was about to start. The dad's response, "Well I can't say no now." I tried, but could not help myself from laughing. And yes, they are now separated.