Comments on: Marriage Finances: Til Death Do Us Part?

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 23 May 2008 04:42:00 +0000

My husband and I have a hybrid method that works for us because we’ve lived apart for almost half of our marriage (thanks military). Depending on the current living situation we total up our shared expenses and divide by two – then we each contribute our share to a joint account to pay bills out of. When we lived together the account included rent, utilities, food, etc. When we live apart we only contribute enough to cover shared saving goals and our cell phone plan. Its a flexible system that lets us cover our shared expenses without tying up more of our money in a joint account than necessary.

By: Deborah

Deborah — Thu, 22 May 2008 23:00:11 +0000

I honestly think that there’s no one “best way” to do everything. Especially in situations where one partner has an ex and a child from a previous relationship, it can make a lot of sense to keep things separate. If anything were to happen to my husband and our finances were together, it would be a lot easier for my stepson’s mother to take me to court. Wills can play a huge roll in keeping things easier to deal with, but still, it’s better in some situations to keep everything separate.

By: Schoon

Schoon — Thu, 22 May 2008 13:30:22 +0000

Yeah, the split works if you have two incomes but I still don’t think it’s the best option. I think once you’re married that all the money should go into the same account and bills just get paid from there. Maybe each person can keep a portion out for their own use, so, save 10% together, leave 10% in a personal account and the other 80% goes into the family coffers for bill payments. I just think that splitting the money makes it easier to split the marriage if something goes wrong. The sheer complication of divorce is enough to make some people try and make it work and in a lot of cases people end up divorcing for stupid reasons like lack of communication or “because we’re not in love anymore”. It’s like the guy getting divorced and he keeps his apartment “just in case things don’t work out”, know what I mean?

No disrespect to ANYONE that uses the split method of paying bills, just my 2 cents.

By: Rachel

Rachel — Wed, 21 May 2008 20:43:56 +0000

I enjoyed reading your post. I’m also glad to see someone else who does a bill split with their husband! My soon-to-be fiancee and I have now lived together one year and we have a slightly convoluted method of calculating expenses which we expect to continue after marriage – but it works for us!

I have a larger salary, but also $40k in student and car loans and no savings, while he has a smaller salary but no debt and a large savings account for a future home. The rationale for our current split is that it makes budgeting easier for his smaller income yet we feel that everything is fair and my larger percentages help offset the fact that I won’t really be able to contribute to a down payment, although the mortgage will be split. We expect to continue this after marriage, the only difference will be that instead of him writing me checks for his share, we’ll just have a joint account where the percentages will be deposited for each of us. I keep track of everything in excel (love it!) and we review bills and percentages every quarter to make sure things are working for both of us. Right now it is set as follows:

Rent – 55% / 45%
Utilities – 60% / 40%
Entertainment / Food/ Household Expenses / Groceries – 50% / 50%

By: Nicole

Nicole — Wed, 21 May 2008 10:12:42 +0000

When I moved in with my divorced (and older) boyfriend, we also did a bill split. He pays for more of the house then I do, because 1) it’s his house and 2) he makes way more money then I do. There seems to be this whole 50/50 idea out there but if it doesn’t make sense for your situation, why?

By: aika

aika — Wed, 21 May 2008 08:43:02 +0000

I really enjoy reading the post. Thank you Deborah for sharing about your “financial issues and strategy” with your husband. Yes, communication is the key to every relationships.