Married Folks: Joint or Separate Bank Accounts?

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Hi @Paul Allen,*poof* a random lender appearsNot directly related to your question, but related to REI.Scenario: Once in a while I'll have a married couple where one spouse, for whatever reason, wants to be on the mortgage alone without the other spouse. All of the down payment funds are in the other spouse's account that just has their name on it.Problem: Down payment "gifts" cannot be used for investment properties, primary residences only. It is absurd that Fannie considers transfers of funds within a marriage to be a "gift," but alas I am not the dictator of the universe and cannot change this at present.Solution: Just what @Cara Lonsdale said, have both names on the accounts even if it's understood between the two of you that this one is "mine" and this one is "yours." She also highlights several other benefits like doubling the amount of gov't subsidized mortgages you can get, and more easily satisfying reserve requirements (which can become a Major Issue from property #7 onward).*poof* a random lender vanishes

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Joint on everything. That's the definition of marriage.My wife is an accountant by trade so she handles the accounts. However, we recently created a new business account that is specifically for me to operate the investments and save up for new investments. She determines how much to put in there based on income and budget. Once the funds are loaded, I know they are free to spend.

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My husband and I each had long term accounts prior to marriage that we both wanted to keep for the business relationship with the bank, but we added each other to them. Then we opened a joint account together for business to run our RE holdings through. I am a PLLC as a Realtor, so I have a separate account for that, but it ties to a trust that he is a beneficiary to, so it is as if he were on the account too.What we DID do, that I would suggest when it comes to RE investing, is we obtained loans separately to maximize our buying power. Since conventional loans will only allow you to hold 10 loans, we started taking turns purchasing properties so that our max would be 20 instead of 10. We get to utilize the same account for reserves and down payments (which instead of having to show enough for all properties, just has to show enough for the person purchasing at the time). Again, we have a trust that both of us are on, so each of the properties go into LLCs that the trust owns. Since we are both the beneficiaries of the trust, it is all under 1 umbrella.

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We keep everything seperate, but that is because of the pre-nup as we got married after I built my REI business. We have a joint checking but 90% of things come from our individual accounts. My first marriage was 100% joint and I am not sure I will ever do that again.

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We have a joint savings account for REI and business accounts together, but several separate accounts for personal and household expenses. After being 100% merged with my first marriage, I just can't do it again.

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Not officially married yet, but might as well be. Joint on everything. Complete transparency. To each their own, but I could never be in a marriage any other way. This is "our" goal "our" life. We are a team.

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We have no "mine" and "yours," just "ours". It's been that way since we married in 1979, and I can't imagine doing it differently.

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And just as an add on...when you have both names on the accounts, even if you purchase separately to take advantage of more conventional loans, all you have to do is submit a LOX (Letter of Explaination) that the other spouse has permission to use the funds for their RE purchase. So, you don't even have to worry about the "gift" issue.

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We are merged on everything except two 401k accounts. He is self employed, and for a while, we both participated in a self-directed solo 401k through his company. Those accounts are separate because they're still active, but we invest out of them. So some of our loans are mine and some are his, and it gets a bit confusing.

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Joint and seperate for banking. Although you remind me there are business accounts he should be on although he has never logged in to some accounts. Intended as seperate are some small amounts of personal money from family eventually to do something in thier memory. Now Stock accounts are seperate. It is a challenge to get anyone in my house to deal with banking besides me but should they need to they can.