For context, as a newly married couple, we spend 80% of our time in Taiwan and 20% in Spain. My job pays the vast majority of our income. I’m Canadian/British, and she’s Taiwanese.
The day after we legally married, I added her as a beneficiary to all my investment and retirement accounts.
In Europe, we keep Euros in one WISE account for which we both have a card.
Culturally, in Taiwan, there isn’t a joint checking account. However, she has the banking password and can transfer money. Banks also let her do whatever she wants with my account as long as she bring my bank stamp.
Also culturally, its important for women to have their own stash of money (私房錢 si fang qian) that’s a psychological safety net. She has that in her own account, it basically just sits there. It’s less then 3% of our net worth and makes her feel safe so I don’t mind.
Every week I take a look at what we spend and make sure we’re on track budget wise in YNAB. We pick our big savings goal together and pool the rest of our money together.
I highly recommend pooling everything together. It makes life a lot more convenient and keeps you both accountable to the goals you’ve set together. If one partner really needs some money saved on the side, that can work (works for us) but all paychecks going forward being pooled makes life simple.
The day after we legally married, I added her as a beneficiary to all my investment and retirement accounts.
In Europe, we keep Euros in one WISE account for which we both have a card.
Culturally, in Taiwan, there isn’t a joint checking account. However, she has the banking password and can transfer money. Banks also let her do whatever she wants with my account as long as she bring my bank stamp.
Also culturally, its important for women to have their own stash of money (私房錢 si fang qian) that’s a psychological safety net. She has that in her own account, it basically just sits there. It’s less then 3% of our net worth and makes her feel safe so I don’t mind.
Every week I take a look at what we spend and make sure we’re on track budget wise in YNAB. We pick our big savings goal together and pool the rest of our money together.
I highly recommend pooling everything together. It makes life a lot more convenient and keeps you both accountable to the goals you’ve set together. If one partner really needs some money saved on the side, that can work (works for us) but all paychecks going forward being pooled makes life simple.