Joint investing account/travelling fund?

[rx7boi]

For you folks with a significant other, do you have a joint investing account? Wife and I just got married last weekend and we've been toying with the idea of putting 10k into a low-risk investment fund.

We go on vacation about once a year and it'd be nice for the fund to have a bit of extra padding by the time we want to spend it. We both have our personal RRSP/TFSA accounts that we contribute to so we're not quite sure how to set something up that belongs to both of us.

Do you guys have joint investing accounts with your S/O's and do you have any suggestions on what setups have worked for your family?

[min_boost]

I have always pay for entire vacations for two never had dates share responsibility lolz

[Buster]

I just handle all of it for both of us. All of our assets are combined (she actually owns the house, haha). Some of her RRSP stuff I can't manage directly myself because the systems aren't setup for me to see her stuff on my portal, but that's it.

I don't really understand why people would keep their investments separate? Or their finances for that matter.

[botox]

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I just handle all of it for both of us. All of our assets are combined (she actually owns the house, haha). Some of her RRSP stuff I can't manage directly myself because the systems aren't setup for me to see her stuff on my portal, but that's it.

I don't really understand why people would keep their investments separate? Or their finances for that matter.

Usually happens when one person brings significantly more money into the relationship than the other or both partners have lot's of $$. We were both pretty broke when we got married so everything has always been shared for us. We've put things under separate names for various reasons such as taxes, but everything we buy, sell or invest is always a joint decision and nothing is hidden.

[Mitsu3000gt]

I always thought separate finances would help avoid any arguments about money, especially if one person is cheap and the other isn't, a shared account is only going to cause arguments every time you want to buy something. I don't have much experience in that area though, but given that money can be such a point of tension, I had always thought separate is best, especially if you make similar money. Each month, both of you pay into an account proportionate to your incomes that pays for the mortgage, groceries, gas, household items, (or vacations) etc. and the rest is separate. That is how I imagine the most amicable possible setup anyway... It also keeps gift giving more special when it doesn't all just come out of the same account that both of you can see haha.

If you see eye to eye on everything then shared is probably fine, but if you know beforehand that you both have significantly different interest, outlooks on material value, etc. then in my (admittedly inexperienced) opinion I would think it's better to keep it separate to reduce the possibility of arguments.

[Buster]

If you can't agree on how to handle money, I'm not sure how you handle the hard stuff once kids start getting squirted out.

I never understood separate finances for married people.

"I love you, let's commit to each other for the rest of our lives [insert maudlin marriage vows]. Honey, let's also have children - the single hardest thing to do in life. But keep you grubby paws off my cash, you asshole. That's just too far."

[BavarianBeast]

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If you can't agree on how to handle money, I'm not sure how you handle the hard stuff once kids start getting squirted out.

I never understood separate finances for married people.

"I love you, let's commit to each other for the rest of our lives [insert maudlin marriage vows]. Honey, let's also have children - the single hardest thing to do in life. But keep you grubby paws off my cash, you asshole. That's just too far."

Sometimes it's a requirement to separate your assets with a prenup if you have a significant amount or you're involved in a trust. Any family with a lot of money that is dealing with a trust will typically throw in a clause that makes it a requirement for a beneficiary to maintain their trust assets separately and requirement for prenuptial agreement. Too many floozies marrying big money and taking off.

[tonytiger55]

Congrats on the wedding...

It depends on how you both manage your finances as a couple. From my experience in banking couples usually do the following.

Its either seperate accounts with one person managing with a common goals.

Or a joint account and decsions are made mutually but usually one person (sometimes the male) making the big decisions.

The third option is seperate accounts but having a financial advsior take care of the planning aspect. So you and your spoue have seperate accounts as normal. But the advisor works out how much either of you should put where. They also work out where to put your money for holidays/luxuries and where to take them from to maximise the full benifits of the instruments. The advantages of having it in a TFSA and RRSP are the tax advantages they can help in the long term.

If you both open a investing account, you will have to pay captial gains tax. Hence speaking with advisor who can plan this out so you dont have to. The trouble is finding a good advisor. If you can, find somone who has done the HSBC training. I did their training back in London a few years back and there are cruicial elements that the major banks in Canada dont teach here in terms of where you are in your financial profile and planning.

Is there any wedding cake left..? I like cake.

[Buster]

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Sometimes it's a requirement to separate your assets with a prenup if you have a significant amount or you're involved in a trust. Any family with a lot of money that is dealing with a trust will typically throw in a clause that makes it a requirement for a beneficiary to maintain their trust assets separately and requirement for prenuptial agreement. Too many floozies marrying big money and taking off.

Isn't that the point of the trust?

I wish I had that problem. Wife and I earned every penny we have to our name. Haha

[rx7boi]

Ah, thanks for the replies guys.

We've been living together for the past 4 years and finances has never been a topic of contention. We both keep separate accounts for our personal spending but we have a joint account which we both deposit a set amount into each month. We use this account to pay for all the bills and any other pre-authorizations like property taxes, home insurance, etc. We spend different amounts on different things at different intervals and I've grown up earning every penny to my name and spending it where I see fit.

The reason I ask if there's a joint investment vehicle is because the money is from our wedding gifts. We're looking to use a bit of it towards our honeymoon but our family and friends were very generous so we will have an ample amount left over.

We want to make the best of it and instead of just putting it into the joint chequing account where it stays stagnant, we want to have the money grow relatively risk-free while we await our next annual trip. I just wasn't sure what that would look like seeing as we each have our own TFSA/RRSP accounts. I was thinking that maybe put them into a new/separate mutual fund and let it grow there.

Everything has been deposited and is currently sitting in my personal account but since the gifts were to both of us, I just wanted to keep things transparent out of respect for her but I have no qualms about putting the money into her account either, and vice versa.

[tonytiger55]

Another way of looking at it is like this.
The money you spend today is the money you saved/put away yesterday.

This is a really simple example..Lets say you have 10K wedding money. Split that 5K into your respective investments lets say a RRSP.

If you both decide to go on holiday and spend 10K on a crazy getaway. You can take money from an investment that has matured in your TFSA (10K) and spend that. Its not the EXACT same money as the wedding money, (wedding money is in your RRSP). But you kinda get the idea.

Hope this helps.

(ahem... cake..?)

[dirtsniffer]

Married with a joint savings and chequing. We both contribute different amounts to our joint goals and have approximately the same personal amounts left over.

Personally, it bothers me that she is willing to spend $40 on honey. So I like to keep it seperate. Not that $40 natters... Makes things simple for me.

I take care of the investing.

[blownz]

My wife and I have a joint unregistered investment account, but we actually put more money into one in her name. Basically because she makes less money and the taxes are better. It only has ~$70K so it doesn't make that much of a difference having it taxed in her hands compared to me, but once it is a couple hundred grand it will make a difference. Plus I fully expect her to stop working long before me and then we will hardly pay any tax on that money. So definitely think long term if the investment account is for long term.

For short term (vacation or car savings) you can still do joint. I personally just have one of those high interest savings accounts for that so it is available for impulse buys.

As far as normal sharing of funds, what we have done and I recommend to others is to have both paycheques go into a joint account that takes care of basically all of the big stuff and joint things. Then at each pay give each other an allowance. We have separate personal accounts that get a $250 allowance at each pay. Those accounts the other person can't see. Our bank cards are set up so chequing is the joint account and savings is the personal account. The personal account is then used for personal stuff the other person can't complain about. Like if I want to go out for lunch every day and she wants to bag a lunch, no problem, we don't argue about it. If she wants her nails done every week, I don't care as it comes out of her account. It solves a lot of petty arguments.

[Tik-Tok]

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We want to make the best of it and instead of just putting it into the joint chequing account where it stays stagnant, we want to have the money grow relatively risk-free while we await our next annual trip. I just wasn't sure what that would look like seeing as we each have our own TFSA/RRSP accounts. I was thinking that maybe put them into a new/separate mutual fund and let it grow there.

If you know you'll be spending it on your next trip, just put it into whichever TFSA you think will make the most money in the next year. Creating a joint one seems a little silly to me, knowing it will be spent anyways.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Using an extreme scenario, let's say for example one person has a bunch of expensive hobbies, spends a lot of money in general, likes expensive cars or purses/clothes/shoes or whatever, and anytime something has to be purchased they want to buy the best. The other person is very frugal, hardly spends any money, doesn't care about cars, houses, shopping, etc. and any time they have to buy or replace something, they buy the cheapest thing possible. All is fine and well beforehand because you have completely separate finances. Then you get married and everything is in a shared account - in my mind, I can't see that NOT causing problems when the money is all coming out of the same account and both persons want to continue their habits. But if accounts are separate, as long as you're each paying into the grocery/mortgage/savings fund equally, it's far less likely the other person is bothered by what they may view as reckless or unnecessary spending (i.e. if wife wants to buy a $2K purse, I think that is ridiculous, but it's her money - same as if husband wants to buy something the wife views as ridiculous or unnecessary). Does it just not work like that? I'm not married which is why I am so interested in this. This also assumes both people make similar money.

[Buster]

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Using an extreme scenario, let's say for example one person has a bunch of expensive hobbies, spends a lot of money in general, likes expensive cars or purses/clothes/shoes or whatever, and anytime something has to be purchased they want to buy the best. The other person is very frugal, hardly spends any money, doesn't care about cars, houses, shopping, etc. and any time they have to buy or replace something, they buy the cheapest thing possible. All is fine and well beforehand because you have completely separate finances. Then you get married and everything is in a shared account - in my mind, I can't see that NOT causing problems when the money is all coming out of the same account and both persons want to continue their habits. But if accounts are separate, as long as you're each paying into the grocery/mortgage/savings fund equally, it's far less likely the other person is bothered by what they may view as reckless or unnecessary spending (i.e. if wife wants to buy a $2K purse, I think that is ridiculous, but it's her money - same as if husband wants to buy something the wife views as ridiculous or unnecessary). Does it just not work like that? I'm not married which is why I am so interested in this. This also assumes both people make similar money.

I don't judge people on how they do shit. (Mostly because I don't really care about how other people do shit). But I find this approach baffling. If you can' sort out how to co-exist in a financial manner, how can you expect to be able to figure the other hard shit out, like kids, how to handle retirement finances, etc. I know people who combine finances and then agree on a discretionary amount per month or whatever, and they do that. But getting married and then not being able, or willing to, combine finances is just some sort of Marriage Lite. Life is much less of a pain in the ass if you can figure out how to make a marriage a partnership where you're a team and can tackle shit as a team. Sometimes that involves compromising on buying whatever shit you want and getting your partner involved in the decisions. Good partners will try to understand their partner's priorities.

[msommers]

I can see money being a piece of contention between two people, especially those who are polar opposites on how they view it. But if the woman is making enough money to buy a 2K purse herself, she's going to still be spending her money on it anyways, regardless if it's a pooled account. Conversely, the same woman who likes 2K purses didn't buy it in the first place, in which case it still doesn't matter either.

End of the day, if seeing her spend her money per transaction is an issue all the sudden, joint account is not for you.

[Disoblige]

No joint account simply because we already have a good system working and no sense making a new account for nothing.

She pays all the groceries, small appliance/home stuff, online shopping, gas, and big lump sum cash purchases. I take care of the mortgages, cable, internet, phones, etc. It's easier to keep track that way as well. Call it stereotypical but also she deals with all the ebates, cash back, coupons n stuff too so I don't need to worry. I just need to call every year to make sure my loyalty rates for phone, internet, cable/satellite are added

[tonytiger55]

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Using an extreme scenario, let's say for example one person has a bunch of expensive hobbies, spends a lot of money in general, likes expensive cars or purses/clothes/shoes or whatever, and anytime something has to be purchased they want to buy the best. The other person is very frugal, hardly spends any money, doesn't care about cars, houses, shopping, etc. and any time they have to buy or replace something, they buy the cheapest thing possible. All is fine and well beforehand because you have completely separate finances. Then you get married and everything is in a shared account - in my mind, I can't see that NOT causing problems when the money is all coming out of the same account and both persons want to continue their habits. But if accounts are separate, as long as you're each paying into the grocery/mortgage/savings fund equally, it's far less likely the other person is bothered by what they may view as reckless or unnecessary spending (i.e. if wife wants to buy a $2K purse, I think that is ridiculous, but it's her money - same as if husband wants to buy something the wife views as ridiculous or unnecessary). Does it just not work like that? I'm not married which is why I am so interested in this. This also assumes both people make similar money.

It's a interesting disscussion. Ive witnessed a lot of relationships break down over this. Just to take the thread sideways for a bit.

My parents are traditional but dad insisted mum have a seperate account. Dad took car of house, car, bills, investments. Mum took care of the kids, clothes, food, electronic purchases. This system worked for both of them.
Joint accounts can work. Some use it for a 50/50 system or 60/40 based on each partners strengths and weakneses. Then you can have the extreem systems from the cave man era where some East Indian families insist on a joint account and the husband has control over everything. My sisters ex husbands family insisted she give up her own bank account, her wages, and rent from her invested property go into her husbands account. That marriage did not last long.

It depends on the setup of the relationship and if you both work as a unit towards a common goal. Now we are in a era where women make more money. So the role dynanmic can change. This can work and in other cases it can cause problems. As the money can give a false sense of power. Ive dated women who have made more money (well all women have earned more than me as Ive always been stuck in survival jobs) but some have made a LOT of money. The psychology dynamic is fascinating.

Ive posted the story in another thread before. I went on a date with a girl who suggested (first date) that she wanted to pend $30-40k on her wedding. Yes she talked about wedding on the first date. I went with the flow and I suggested a idea of perhaps investing in a rental property. She did not like that. Red flags galore. How would finances in that setup work. No idea.

Many times at the bank I would be seperating couples accounts over a breakup. Those were awkward as HELL. The silence.. neither parties talking to each other unless neccesary. If they did it was in a icy tone so cold that would make last winter feel like it was a hot tub party in Bangkok. Both partners unflintching and looking at you DEAD in the eye. There was I trying to work on the computer as fast as I could to get these people out of my office. Now can you image all this going on when your trying to hold in a gigantuous fart..? One time I made some bullshit excuse to get something from the copier just so I could let my ass rip.
I would ask after when one party left. They would say the relationship broke down to finances. One person spending too much or thier financial goals differed.

It is interesting. After getting trained at HSBC and using TD's own methodogy, just through a convo one can start to learn if a person is in debit. The amount of girls in thier late 20's and 30's living the false wohoo lifestyle is staggering.
I remember one date a few years back I was getitng all types of questions about accounts. Then when it came to pay, I went 50/50. Then I looked at the type of credit card she had and it all came together. She was in debit.
This has happened a LOT, oooh the stories I could tell. The bullets dodged. One of the main factors I look out for now when I go on a date is does she have her finances in order or at least working towards it? Many don't.

[Buster]

let ass rip...bahaha...fucking vindaloo.

I guess I'm lucky that my wife and I are pretty simpatico on this shit. In the end, we're both kinda cheap so that helps. Also helps that she's a bad ass businesswomen in her own right and has climbed to be an executive so she isn't reliant on my income anyway.