MoneySaving Poll: Are you the senior financial partner in your relationship?

Former_MSE_Sam_M

Poll started 2 March 2015

Are you the senior financial partner in your relationship?

Is looking after the household's finances a shared job, or is one of a couple the senior financial partner – taking charge of decisions about insurance, energy bills, investments, debts and more?


What situation is closest to your own circumstances?

Vote in this week's poll

Did you vote? Are you surprised at the results so far? Have your say below. To see the results from last time, click here.

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Thanks!


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Tigsteroonie

So far (it's early, I know!) the most popular option is "I'm in charge, they don't know much".

Er, could that be because the poll is on an MSE newsletter and the people likely to be reading the poll are those who are interested in improving their finances? Whereas those who 'don't know much' probably don't bother subscribing to the newsletter and therefore wouldn't see the poll :rotfl:

torbrex

Also interesting that there are almost twice as many female voters as male, including the singlies

seagull104

Both above are good points. I was surprised at the almost exact proportions (2:1) female to male and that the results for each category are almost exactly the same in percentage terms. Whilst being surprised at the preponderance of female votes it would indicate that by and large there is a high level of agreement betwen the sexes. It might have been more interesting if age groups had been added. I am convinced that us older males are more likely to run financial matters in the home than our younger couterparts. My daughters tell me most modern males are useless. And the older males often kept their wives at home.

elizabethhull

I would have liked to add to my vote that my husband is a Charted Accountant, specialising in tax, so it's really a case of why keep a dog & bark yourself !!!

However, although he takes the lead, I am not totally ignorant, and am in charge of broadband providers and TV services. I also read very closely ANYTHING I'm given to sign - not because I don't trust him, but because one day I may have to do it all myself, and the better equipped I am at that point the better.

Daisy_Bell

I think to get more accurate results in this poll, age groups should have been included in the circumstances of the couples.
I think older people who have been married for a very long time tend towards the man being in charge of the finances because in the main, women stayed at home. My own parents were like this (although my grandma was always in complete charge of their finances, because my granddad,although lovely, was useless with money and we're talking a very long time ago now!)
My hubby and I have been married for 55 years and although he was in charge at the beginning when the kids were little and I was at home, things changed when I went back to work and earned my own money. We started sharing some of the financial responsibility then and after we retired, we became completely equal partners. Throughout our marriage, we have always had our own savings accounts in our own names. Now, he takes responsibility for most of the larger household bills and myself for all the weekly groceries and household stuff, plus the Telephone, Broadband & TV. We go halves whenever there are large outgoings required for the home. It works very well.
These days, I reckon most younger couples manage their finances equally right from the start. It's a very individual thing though, because there will always be exceptions (my gran) and my own daughter, who manages all the finances in her marriage, because quite simply, she is better at it!

Gavin83

I'll answer this as a young couple (both 29), living together but not married.

We both have our own seperate finances which we obviously deal with on our own but the joint finances we deal with 50/50. I generally understand the financial details a little better and the way things work but I make sure she understands it all. She's also generally better at organising stuff so she helps me out with that.

I genuinely can't understand why someone wouldn't wish to have at least a basic understanding of their finances.

Daisy_Bell

Gavin83 wrote: »

I genuinely can't understand why someone wouldn't wish to have at least a basic understanding of their finances.

I agree. However, I know elderly women whose husbands had always had complete charge of the household finances; right down to the buying of the wife's clothes! They'd have a joint account, but everything else would be in the husband's name (my parents were like that) Then, on becoming widowed, were at a complete loss when faced with having to deal with the finances alone!

pollypenny

We do our finances together. I think knowing what we've got and what we need to pay is the key to a good relationship.

The one time OH took respondibility, when I was in final year, he managed to run up a credit card debt and an overdraft!

Peter333

I think it's OK for one to sort of 'be in charge' and deal with things, as long as the other has full knowledge of income and outgoings. We have one joint account for everything; all income and all outgoings, and then a savings account. Both are in both names.

I also remember the days when men were in charge of everything, and the women knew nothing, and had nothing. Mostly because the men earned the money, and had the rather obnoxious attitude that it was 'theirs,' and not the family's.

Everything comes out by direct debit in our account, and all the income goes in for us both, and we both have the same access to the money. So I put, male, married, and we share the responsibility, because neither one of us is 'in charge.'