Married couples who merge finances may be happier, stay together longer (article)
“Prior research suggests a correlation that couples who merge finances tend to be happier than those who do not. But this is the first research to show a causal relationship -- that married couples who have joint bank accounts not only have better relationships, but they 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," said Jenny Olson, assistant professor of marketing at Kelley. "They frequently told us they felt more like they were 'in this together.'
"This is the best evidence that we have to date for a question that shapes couples' futures; and the fact that we observe these meaningful shifts over two years, I think it's a pretty powerful testament to the benefits of merging. On average, merging should warrant a conversation with your partner, given the effects that we're seeing here."”
My Takeaways:
Married couples who manage a joint finance account may be happier in the long-term. They also find that having a joint bank account may lead to less fights over money overall and better handling of family/house finances.
A joint bank account may be one of the ways one shows an external sign of commitment during marriage, merging finances as a way to show the other person “we’re in this together”.
Of course this does mean a potential divorce or separation down the line may be more difficult, but most marriages are gone without that thought in the first place. In general a conversation talking about how finances will be handled in a marriage is important to have before entering into such agreement in the first place.
Full article is here!
#Relationships #Marriage #Finances
What do you think about joint finances for married couples?
There are finncial reasons to have separate accounts. Here registered accounts can't be joint (accounts which havetax advantages like no taxes, deferred taxes). I also find separate non-registered accounts help with attribution rules for taxes too.
Our chequing is joint. Our mindset with all accounts is it's ours regardless of the name on the account. We didn't start off that way, but reached this mindset by the time we were married.
I think for couples who have different spending styles, viewing most money as joint but having separate spending money can reduce the friction of one person thinking the other is spending money on frivolous thngs or spending unwisely.
