When people get married, they pledge to share a life. But that doesn’t necessarily mean sharing finances.
So, how many couples in the U.S. share money?
A report from the Census Bureau shares that 23% of married couples did not have any joint bank accounts in 2023. That’s a huge jump from 15% of couples who didn’t share any accounts in 1996 — and the agency says there’s one major factor that may explain the increase.
A big part of the reason why fewer couples are sharing bank accounts may be due to the fact that they’re getting married later in life. In 1996, the median age for a first marriage was 24.8 years for women and 27.1 years for men. In 2023, these numbers rose to 28.4 and 30.2, respectively.
Having an individual bank account also seemed to be more common among people who got married later in life. Among opposite-gender couples, 29% of women who got married between ages 30 and 34 held all of their bank accounts jointly with their spouse. But among women who got married between 20 and 24, that figure rose to 47%.
The data also shows that the longer couples were married, the more likely they were to share bank accounts. In 2023, 79% of couples married for nine to 13 years had joint accounts, compared to only 68% of couples who were married for four to eight years.
Children may also play a role in couples’ decisions to have individual versus joint accounts. In 2023, 75% of couples with minor children at home had a joint account, compared to 64% of couples who didn’t have children in their households.
Bankrate’s latest survey on financial infidelity found that 40% of Americans in committed relationships have kept a financial secret from their partner. (1) What’s more, 45% in these relationships believe keeping money secrets is at least as bad as cheating.
One of the benefits of a joint bank account, for those who want to build trust, is that, at least for the amount couples choose to pool together, there is no hiding. It’s harder to spend money behind a person’s back if they can see where it goes and how much.
According to Bankrate, overspending was the top faux pas (33%), followed by lying about a secret debt (23%) or a secret credit card (17%).
Having joint bank accounts could also make it easier for couples to budget, manage shared expenses and plan for emergencies.
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It’s easy to assume that having separate bank accounts protects assets in the event of a divorce. But in many cases, funds acquired during the marriage are considered marital property, and having separate accounts does not necessarily give one person or another exclusive rights to those funds. Put another way, it doesn’t matter where the funds are housed if they were acquired during marriage.
That said, there can still be benefits to having separate accounts. For one thing, it could help couples maintain some autonomy from one another. If a couple agrees that they can each deposit $500 into a bank account each month to use for their own purposes, that could help avoid conflict if each person has different spending priorities.
And when it comes to gift giving, joint accounts can pose a challenge. It’s hard to get a gift for a spouse or partner, or surprise them with something special, when they have access to the account that money is coming out of. Separate accounts solve this problem.
Research from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business found that married couples who combine finances may be happier than those who don’t. (2) Not only that, but couples who have a joint bank account also fight less over money and feel better about how household finances are handled.
“When we surveyed people of varying relationship lengths, those who had merged accounts reported higher levels of communality within their marriage compared to people with separate accounts, or even those who partially merged their finances,” Jenny Olson, assistant professor of marketing at Kelley, told News at IU. “They frequently told us they felt more like they were ‘in this together.’”
From a practical perspective, combining finances into shared accounts could make it easier to save toward shared goals, cover recurring expenses, stick to a budget and plan for big milestones, like home renovations.
Sharing knowledge on investing accounts may also serve to strengthen and diversify your combined portfolios.
If you haven’t yet combined finances with your spouse or opened a joint bank account, you may want to consider doing so once you take on large shared expenses together, like a mortgage. You may also want to consider opening a joint account if you have a baby, adopt a pet or end up with other dependents to care for.
The most important thing, though, is to get onto the same page financially. That, more so than where you keep your money, could be a factor in whether you meet your financial goals and support one another’s efforts.
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Bankrate (1); News at IU (2)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
