Awww Honey ... a Bank Account?? For Me?!?!

Bern and I reached another milestone in our relationship this weekend. We opened our first joint bank account!

Because the economy is in the pits right now, and people are getting laid off at both of our workplaces, I figured it would be prudent to bring out the frugality that secretly lurks within me. I get immense pleasure from earning and saving money. I also get quite a lot of pleasure out of spending money -- so these two sides of my financial personality have to duke it out a lot.

Anyway, we decided that to help protect ourselves financially in case one of us loses our job or another setback hits us, we will live primarily off my salary, and use Bern's income just to pay his loan installments (student loans, car note, etc.). Every penny of his income left over after those payments goes into our new joint savings account. That will enable us, if we're successful, to have a nice sum squirrelled away by the end of 2009.

In addition, I am trying to maximize the interest we earn off this savings account. So, instead of going to a "brick-and-mortar" bank, we chose to open our joint savings account with ING Direct, an online bank related to an established Dutch bank that I am familiar with. I researched ING Direct, and once satisfied as to its legitimacy, I chose it rather than the usual Chase or Bank of America because the ING Direct Savings Account, a.k.a. Orange Savings, offers a 2.4% interest rate on your savings, which is 10 times higher than what BoA is offering. That could mean several extra hundred dollars a year in our nest egg.

So I spent part of my weekend developing a budget to make sure we could live off my salary alone. We can, but we'll need to cut back on some little luxuries that we currently take for granted, and we'll need to watch the cash register at the grocery story and places like that to make sure we're not overspending on everyday items like groceries.

Bernard and I, although we've been together for more than 8 years, have never held a joint bank account. I still feel like I want each of us to have our own separate checking accounts, at least until we're married, but this joint savings account seems like a good move for us right now.