It may be a stronger sign of marital unity than your wedding bands.
I understand that this is a controversial topic, and let me say I recommend that both husband and wife should still maintain their own personal savings account which both have had before getting married. This is a safety net in the event that things do not work out between both of you for whatever reasons in the long term. Another reason is that both parties need to have some level of independence from each other, although there should also be honesty and openness to each other as to how much one has in their own savings accounts.
However, after marriage, it would make good sense to open up an additional joint savings accounts between spouses, for both psychological and practical reasons.
Even in my own marriage, we had actually maintained two separate personal savings accounts for the first 8 years of marriage, and only a year ago did we open up a joint savings account, albeit one with high-interest rates, to which we both pool a portion of our income resources into monthly.
Here are the reasons why I recommend having a joint account with your spouse.
1. A Sense of Commitment and Responsibility to the Unity of Marriage
Marriage is a lifelong commitment between two independent and unique persons, deciding to be together for the rest of their lives, unified into one household. This means even the topic of finances ought to be transparent between both parties. The majority of the resources from both sides typically should be pooled together to the same household fund. This is important especially when children come into the family and are to be taken care of equally by both parents.
Having a joint account in a way makes it literal that both parents are joined in love, partnership, and in their finances. This is crucial to progress both parties and the kids towards being financially secure in the home, and practical as both parents now have the visibility on how much money there is in their savings and both share the responsibility to ensure the household funds are in good levels.
2. Transparency and Honesty In Finances
Being married, honesty, and transparency matter between spouses and this extends even to your finances. Money is an area of importance as it is the basis for many household decision-making processes, and it also leads to feelings of being secure and safe, it makes sense that the status of one’s financial situation should be known to both husband and wife. Alternatively, when times get hard and money is less, the burden can be borne by both parties instead of one person alone, as it can be stressful to maintain a front that things are well to your other half when it really isn’t. It can also mean that if your other half is kept in the dark about the condition of the household finances, he or she may worry unnecessarily about whether there is enough money in your savings to sustain the family.
3. Shared Household Financial Goals
Following up from point number 2, it makes sense that with transparency in finances, both spouses can work better together to achieve a shared financial goal, be it to build up your household emergency fund, saving up for the children’s education fund, or even to pay off the house mortgage and further on to possibly achieve financial freedom. This journey of sitting down and sharing goals, making plans, and achieving each financial goal itself will make both sides grow in love and respect for each other, sharing the same goals and objectives and working together to get there.
After marriage, both individuals should still maintain their own identities but should always be committed to the union. Sure. it can still work if both husband and wife are completely transparent in reporting their personal savings account digits to each other every month, but this requires higher effort to have the same level of transparency as having a joint account. Consider the above points and see if this can work for you and your spouse.
At the end of the day, a ring is a nice shiny outward symbol of the marriage to others around you, but a joint savings account between the both of you is a practical action that signifies the amount of trust and commitment you have towards each other and may potentially increase the unity of your marriage even more.