union

A while ago, I ran a question on if couples should combine their finances or keep them separate. Since then, my wife and I have been tweaking our system to come up with what we think is the best of everything:

The hybrid financial system

My wife and I, by our nature, are independent people — the more we thought about combined finances, the more it repulsed us. From a practical standpoint, however, there are numerous times when joint bank accounts make financial transactions simpler. So we decided to compromise and do both.

We have separate checking accounts where our respective employers deposit our paychecks. This allows us to keep our independence and not feel that every purchase will be scrutinized by the other person.

We did, however, open a joint checking account. Our joint expenses such as rent, the bills, gym memberships come of of this account. On the 3rd of every month, we have a couple finance meeting where we total the bills for our joint expenses and deposit that amount into the joint checking account.

We split the bills proportionally to our income. A spreadsheet in open office does the calculations for us. For example, last month my wife took home £1800.00 after taxes and I took home £2000.00. Our total income is £3,800. My fraction of that is £2,000/£3,800 or 53%. I pay 53% of the total cost of the joint bills and my wife pays 47%.

By paying proportionally, if one of us starts earning more money, it also helps reduce the bills of the other one. If one of us loses a job or their salary decreases, the burden on them for the bills is also proportionally reduced.

We also contribute in the same proportional way to the joint savings account for things that we will want to do together, like vacations or large purchases for our flat.

What are the methods you use in your relationship to split the bills? Do you see any problems with ours or have any suggestions?

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Header photograph by kevindooley