Do you know your spouses income?

InsideInsurance

Kapoww wrote: »

how can you sort and split everything accordingly if you don't know what they can afford?

That depends on how you decide to "split things". Some do it on a 50/50, some do it on relative proportion based on incomes, some don't split things at all.

Knowing the wife's is simple as she only works part time and thats for my company so I'm the one that pays her

She knows the ball park of what I earn but not accurately. All the bank statements are in the filing cabinet at home and not locked so she could go look if she wanted to but in 5 years she hasn't yet.

katie1812

From the moment me and my husband first started dating we knew how much we both earned (both students at the time so was minimal, part-time jobs haha!) but as we've got jobs and obviously been together longer, like others have said that makes you a team and I think if you can't share what you earn, however big and small, then that's not right!
We earn different amounts, not hugely contrasting, but he earns more than me, but it goes into one account, and we use the money from that account. We have savings too in both our names too.

cats2012

i don't understand the savings bit of this at all. separate account v joint - whatever, each to their own. but if you're a couple, especially married, what could you possibly be saving for that isn't joint...? surely emergencies, house, children etc are all shared?

poet123

cats2012 wrote: »

i don't understand the savings bit of this at all. separate account v joint - whatever, each to their own. but if you're a couple, especially married, what could you possibly be saving for that isn't joint...? surely emergencies, house, children etc are all shared?

Tax reasons for one.

74jax

cats2012 wrote: »

i don't understand the savings bit of this at all. separate account v joint - whatever, each to their own. but if you're a couple, especially married, what could you possibly be saving for that isn't joint...? surely emergencies, house, children etc are all shared?

In our case we don't save for anything in particular. OH moves his surplus from his current to various investments each month. I don't have a clue what or where.

seven-day-weekend

We have been married almost forty-two years. We always knew what the other earned, and we still know the other's' income in retirement.

We have joint accounts for everyday use. All our income goes into the main one which pays the bills, then gets divvied up into other small pots including our personal spending money and our savings, which are in solo accounts for tax purposes.

Tropez

cats2012 wrote: »

i don't understand the savings bit of this at all. separate account v joint - whatever, each to their own. but if you're a couple, especially married, what could you possibly be saving for that isn't joint...? surely emergencies, house, children etc are all shared?

We don't share a single car, I have mine and my partner has hers. It makes sense to acquire these from separate savings given that we could both afford to do so as the cars are personal expenditures.

We don't share the exact same hobbies and interests therefore it makes sense to save separately towards any costs/expenses related to them.

We have different career goals with different financial implications and situations related to these. It makes sense to save separately as I have different ideas about where I want to be work-wise in the future.

Just a few examples.

Idiophreak

Surprised there's so much ambiguity around people's responses on here...

Personally, I know exactly what the wife earns, to the penny - and I account for the spending of every penny of it, down to her "spending money", which is accounted for on the spending diary.

Likewise, she knows my finances inside, outside back to front.

I did manage to keep my childhood savings "secret" (she knew I had some) long enough to put down a chunk towards her engagement ring, but that's long gone now

ognum

I have read this through and I think if your way works for you then that's fine.

None of us can judge why others do things differently, we don't all start from the same point and our life experiences will make us behave differently as wil our up bringing and our partners.

If it works for you good, if it doesn't there are multiple ways to change.

just because it's not our way doesn't make it right or wrong so good luck to everyone in their money care!

maman

fashionlover10 wrote: »

I certainly won't blame the government or expect any help if we don't bother to save for our retirement but I do feel we would be much much better off right now if I could find full time work.

Well said, but sadly many people do. I know many who've lived life to the full spending every penny of disposable income and then looked for benefits (like pension credit and housing help) as they only had state pension to live on. I would advise you do set up some sort of pension ASAP even if it's just a small one and you can increase payments later in life.

katie1812 wrote: »

From the moment me and my husband first started dating we knew how much we both earned (both students at the time so was minimal, part-time jobs haha!) but as we've got jobs and obviously been together longer, like others have said that makes you a team and I think if you can't share what you earn, however big and small, then that's not right!
We earn different amounts, not hugely contrasting, but he earns more than me, but it goes into one account, and we use the money from that account. We have savings too in both our names too.

That's your opinion but for many on this thread and other similar ones, it's not an opinion everyone agrees with. It's not that they can't share everything, they just choose not to. For example, I would feel really bad about going out for the day with girlfriends (fare, meal, drinks, shopping, show etc.) as I do regularly and expecting DH to pay! I use my own money for that.