Open For Debate: Joint Portfolio

Posted on April 19, 2006 by Her and tagged investments, retirement

We have been managing our money in a joint checking account for a year with much success, and this week He broached the idea of a new joint venture for us: the Joint Portfolio. Up until now we have each funded and managed our own retirement accounts. He has a Roth IRA that was a gift from his parents and a SIMPLE IRA at work. I have a teensy tiny Roth IRA that I funded myself while in college and a 401K at work. When he suggested we might assess our combined portfolio to see if we are diversified and balanced as a whole, I thought it was a great idea. We discussed our similarities: We are both fairly aggressive in our investing strategy, make approximately similar incomes, have a similar amount invested, and are the same age. We think that this makes us good candidates for a Joint Portfolio. It would be nice to see all our investments at once and make sure that we are balanced correctly. It is probably going to take an entire afternoon and Excel to get it done, but I think it will be a good exercise.

Doe you and your significant other make any attempt to manage your retirement accounts as one portfolio? Any suggestions for us?

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Major | Apr 20, 2006

Most important than having things in joint account is making sure your employers and brokerage houses know who the beneficiary is on your accounts. That being said just about all of our accounts are joint.

Our opinion is that it just makes things easier if the both of us can access the accounts. Especially in case one of us becomes incapacitated, or some other emergency arises while one of us is out of town, indisposed, or just unable to take care of it. It leaves us with more options.

Plus, it is pretty important that both parts of the couple know their financial positions, and how they are contributing to it.

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RP | Apr 27, 2006

We have joint checking (for joint bills) and joint savings (for things like future cars and home repairs), but all our investing is separate. Mostly, this is because a lot of our investing is done in IRAs and 401(k), but we also have different philosophies. Since everything is in Quicken, there's total transparency to both of us, so I don't see any reason to invest together.

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