Managing money as a couple

enthusiasticsaver

From when we were married and bought our first house we have always managed our finances jointly.  I would not have agreed to kids or sacrificing my career to go part time otherwise.  This overcame the problem of differing incomes.  All inheritances and family monetary gifts have been shared.

We have a joint current account in to which all income goes.  From  this we both have the same amount of personal spending money each month. We have joint savings and personal savings from our personal spends and all inheritances have been shared. We funded  personal stocks and shares isas and pensions from salaries when we were working to save for early retirement. 

We  manage our own credit cards and pay them off from the joint or personal accounts depending on what was purchased. 

The object in arranging our finances there is that there is total transparency.  Any large purchases are discussed first. Our account has savings spaces so when our pensions are paid I move money across to a direct debit space to cover bills and a savings pot to cover annual bills and car maintenance expenses and so much goes into our savings to go towards holidays, new cars etc. We each take £400 personal money a month in our personal accounts so that can be spent on whatever or saved.  Whatever is left is for food, fuel, entertainment and we can see what is available at any time. We don't really use credit cards  except for large purchases.  If there is money left at the end of the month it is split between savings and personal accounts. 

Dizzycap

SaverRate said:

We have 2 joint bank accounts and we both have our own current account for our own spending too  

1 for Bills, 1 for joint spending. All money gets paid into bills then a portion goes into spending and our own current accounts. 

This works for us and we think its simple. 

This is what we do and it works perfectly! There's never any disagreements about what's going out etc and we both still remain independent by having our own separate money   

Cobbler_tone

We have a healthy relationship with money. She pays the house bills, I pay for groceries. Roughly the same amount. We each have our own money left and don’t get wrapped up with who has the most, or who pays for what outside of that. We do have a separate ‘fun fund’ for things like holidays that we both contribute to.
We earn slightly different amounts but that comes with our respective jobs.

EssexHebridean

BrilliantButScary said:

Just as a matter of interest, when managing your finances as a couple, as the OP does, and it appears other posters, what happens in the following circumstances?

1. A disparity in income
2. An inheritance
3. If one person becomes a stay at home parent
4. Illness and disability

What factors led you to managing your finances in this way?

1. MrEH puts more into the joint account than I do as the higher earner - he has slightly more personal spending money each month though to also reflect that he works more hours than I do. 
2. We've dealt with this once - and as it stands that money (my inheritance) has been left in my name. I did use a chunk of it when we moved house, and it's considered part of our joint savings for the "bigger picture" but my personal pension provision is going to fall a long way short of MrEH's - so that amount has been agreed a my "safety net" for the future should it be required. (We're talking a low-mid 5-figure sum so a nice amount but not a fortune in modern terms)
3. Not something that applies to us
4. Again not something we've had to deal with - if it does then we'll deal with it at the time, with a strong recollection that we did agree "in sickness and in health"... ;-) 

Although MrEH is a far higher earner than I am, I take more of the weight of managing the household finances - so for example it was me that drove forwards our work to clear our first mortgage off earlier, and again I am doing that with this one. I tend to do more of the "life admin" - which also feeds in to the decision for me to work shorter hours as well. We've had experience of things working the other way round too, as I used to be a far higher earner than he was some years ago, and that has probably helped us avoid some of the pitfalls that can accompany that territory.