My husband and I got into marriage with the idea that his money is ours and my money is ours! Yes! This is ideally how God designed marriage to be. However, many financial problems arise in marriage because many people especially women believe that their income is for them alone and not to be shared with their husband. Did you recite that covenant line on your wedding day like I did “….and with all my worldly goods with thee I share from this day forward”. These worldly goods include money!!! Amen, somebody?

Hubby and I had agreed while we were in courtship that we would have a joint account and manage our home through that one account. It sounded so cool. It affords transparency, trust, helps with planning etc. However, it didn’t really work well for us especially for me as I had issues with it months into our marriage.

One of the things I didn’t like about joint account with hubby was that I couldn’t get him a surprise gift without him knowing how much I got it and where I got it from! It shows in the account statement! That’s no longer a surprise, is it? So, I later decided to be withdrawing cash little by little at intervals and save the money towards the buying of the gift! Mehn! That’s so much hard work! lol

Another thing I found challenging about a sole joint account was that it caused unnecessary friction between hubby and I, when I wanted to buy things I considered important for myself and he felt was not priority. I mean, I work hard and even if I didn’t earn so much, I deserve to spoil myself a little. lol. We were not so buoyant financially and he was and still is our financial manager and ensured we spent our money wisely.

Also, sometimes he might want to give someone an amount of money from our joint account which I didn’t think we could afford at the time and I wouldn’t approve of. This may make him unhappy and cause unnecessary arguments. I could go on and on with these issues but we came up with an idea that has been working for us in this regard.

We decided to have individual accounts aside from our joint account. All our income still goes into our joint account. However, we have a particular amount (pocket money) we each get monthly into our personal account. We are able to spend freely from this account. We disclose to each other when we do spend from it. Nothing to hide and we have been enjoying our peace. Amen, somebody?

I just wanted to share this with you all. Kindly let me know your thoughts on this arrangement. Also, please share your own ideas, especially what has worked or still working for you in your home.

Thanks for reading. God bless you.