Author Topic: co-mingle funds before marriage?  (Read 1932 times)

hbrocks

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co-mingle funds before marriage?
« on: December 03, 2018, 12:22:59 PM »
we are getting hitched this coming July.....
 future Ms Hbrocks is onboard and ready to throwdown....she's itching to get all her saving's (and possibly a couple CD's converted over) into the vanguard account.
The big question is .....do we co-mingle our accounts now or wait til her last name is officially changed and then combine? decisions....decisions...

reeshau

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #1 on: December 03, 2018, 12:40:48 PM »
It's not the last name, although that is a pain.  It's the legal status.  Until then, anything you co-own is subject to the terms of the acount/contract/title.  Not only is that risky for whoever owns more, but it could also be a pain in the tax.

If you are serio us, it won't be long, anyway.
« Last Edit: December 03, 2018, 12:47:52 PM by reeshau »

hbrocks

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #2 on: December 03, 2018, 12:47:53 PM »
ah.....legal status and tax implication....Great Points!

marty998

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #3 on: December 03, 2018, 01:18:41 PM »
Depending on your state/country, there are benefits to keeping investments in the lower earning spouses' name. Lower marginal tax rates etc.

Sometimes it's better not to have accounts in both names.

ixtap

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #4 on: December 03, 2018, 02:19:28 PM »
We tried to get a joint checking account when we got married, but Chase messed up the paperwork so many times that we gave up. We finally got our first joint account just before our 5 year anniversary.

Every couple needs to work this out for themselves. Things to consider:

-financial styles
-overall goals
-state laws regarding marriage property rights
-tax implications
-account beneficiaries (ie, one nice thing about separate accounts is that our secondary beneficiaries are our respective mothers, should anything happen to us at the same time)

Much Fishing to Do

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #5 on: December 03, 2018, 04:01:34 PM »
We're as joint/traditional as they come financially 20 years in, and we don't see a reason for not sharing a joint checking account, the credit card, and our names are both on the house/cars etc.

But I never saw a reason for combined investment accounts (its not like you can merge your retirement accounts even if you wanted to).  We have access to each others for viewing and technically transacting stuff (and everything downloads to our joint quicken anyway), but our 'stache is basically legally half in her name and half in mine with each other as beneficiaries.

Steeze

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #6 on: December 03, 2018, 05:50:18 PM »
We're as joint/traditional as they come financially 20 years in, and we don't see a reason for not sharing a joint checking account, the credit card, and our names are both on the house/cars etc.

But I never saw a reason for combined investment accounts (its not like you can merge your retirement accounts even if you wanted to).  We have access to each others for viewing and technically transacting stuff (and everything downloads to our joint quicken anyway), but our 'stache is basically legally half in her name and half in mine with each other as beneficiaries.

Sounds about right for us too. The only joint investing account we have is the taxable account. That is only because I already had one with almost nothing in it, and didn't see a reason to have 2. Maybe if/when we switch to 100% Vangaurd accounts we will open 2 and split it out 50/50? Never thought about it.

I would wait until you are legally married with the new drivers license, SS card, and marriage certificate, just to make things easier. We started to use hybrid finances when we were engaged, using a joint checking for shared expenses. Over the last couple years of being married we are getting closer to being mostly joint. I think we will always have our separate bank accounts on the side with a couple grand. I transfer $100 to each of us each month, just for a little ATM money, gifts, etc that can be spent without the other person asking "why?". Probably will increase that amount this year to $150-$200 as a reward for hitting our savings goal early.

dude

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #7 on: December 04, 2018, 09:45:51 AM »
She can move her funds to Vanguard in her own name -- no reason why you need a joint account for investments either before or after marriage.

^THIS. You can't own joint 401k/IRAs anyway, so why bother combining the others? Easier to unwind everything if your marriage ends badly, too.

Blueberries

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Re: co-mingle funds before marriage?
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2018, 10:46:06 AM »
This is not for everyone but concentration is very important to me and we combined forces for that reason.