Married Couples : Finances Split or Combined?

coolsurfer said:
Those who split there income - how do you go about pensions, investments etc? What if one of you is on a low wage - does that mean you can't live the dream life because one of you is poor???

What if one is you is more knowledgeable with money...what if the wife doesn't pay into a pension or has lower contributions? Does that mean in retirement she'll live on rich teas whilst you have the jaffa?
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I earn twice what my wife does, but we're fortunate enough to both be on good incomes.

We set everything up to be as equal as possible net of all of our costs and savings. So both net incomes go into a joint account, the bills, savings and standing orders etc come out and then we split the remainder equally into our own individual accounts.

For us, pensions took a bit more thought, as there's tax relief to consider as well as tax due when drawing on the pensions, plus I'm 9 years older than my wife. So we worked out (I used to be a financial adviser and still work in pensions) what would overall be the most tax efficient way to bring our two retirement ages as close together as possible. Our own solution was to increase her pension contributions to the point where she no longer pays higher rate income tax, maintain mine at a relatively high level, and have individual savings plans (ISAs) to build up capital. It is actually pretty easy for husband and wife, as the tax wrapper advantages of both pensions and ISAs pass to the spouse on death.

In very simple terms, we modelled cashflow from the moment I hope to retire, through to when she retires through to when the last of us expects to draw the State Pension, and worked out the most tax efficient way of doing it (drawing from pensions, drawing down from ISAs). Then we worked our way back from there to work out how much we need to save, into what and into whose name. It is complex but at the same time it isn't really difficult. The first retiree draws on pension income / tax free cash until the second retiree retires and does the same. Then, when the State Pensions kick in you start to draw down more from ISAs instead of the pensions in order to minimise income tax liability. There are a few other considerations too but that's the basic stuff.

I don't think either of us is living the dream, but we're both equally comfortable with what we have and we'd like it to remain that way into retirement.
 
I have been married for nearly ten years and we have a joint account everything goes in too, keeps it simple.

other half doesn't work as she looks after our son who is home schooled due to his situation and these days I don't trust anyone but her looking after him regardless of them being qualified or not!
 
My son and other half are out all the time doing home school activities or days out, its quitter in winter because of the cold and some places close but they still go out and see friends or play at their house etc
 
Joint account, been like that since we bought the house, we got married later on.

All my earnings go in, I work full time and her part time but similar amounts go in as I'm rather underpaid at the moment. I don't see any of it really. She's out and about wth friends or other mums/kids, shopping etc, I buy myself lunch every day, that's about it.

I think I'll be taking over the money side of things just to modernise the old spreadsheet and track it better, but I also run my own part time business that goes into my account, although it's only about 4-5 jobs a year. Matched betting when I have time as well.
 
Married for 11 years, have a joint bank account that both our salaries are paid into and all of the bills are paid from.

We have individual credit cards so that we can buy presents or whatever else we need/want.
 
Similar to many others, septate accounts for leftovers and one joint for bills and general spending (shopping eating out etc).

Pooling the money would not work for me as i like to spend money more than she does so that arrangement would not work out last for too long.:D
 
We dont even have a joint account for bills, we just have our own accounts and i pay the bills as my income is a lot larger. My various accounts are fairly complicated, i am not sure how we would really share an account and it be in any way useful.
 
we both get paid into our individual accounts but have a joint account all house bills go out of. Individual bills ie. car insurances, mobile phone bills are to our own accounts.

Joint account is only for house bills.

I'm better with money than the wife she likes to spend too much :P
 
Joint accounts for us with the exception of ISAs which can't be joint. Never given it a second thought.

It's actually on my to-do list to check and change as many of the household accounts as I can into joint names too. Without going into details of what's prompted it, when someone dies it's relatively easy to get joint bank accounts etc. changed over to being a sole account for the surviving partner. Individual accounts of the person that dies would be frozen or closed, and getting access is not then straightforward or quick or cheap (wills, probate, ...). Having to deal with that on top of coping with the death of a partner seems to be something worth planning to avoid.
 
Joint here, though the wife gets paid into a separate account then transfers the bulk to the main. She likes to keep a little bit for "her things" which I don't get as she uses the joint credit card for most of the shopping anyway :-)

Joint on nearly every bill too
 
My salary is paid into my account, my wife is not employed. I tip up about 80% for household, savings etc. into a joint account, 5-10% into a car account and the rest is my pocket money.

Sort of an old fashioned way to do things but it works, and has for 35 years.
 
Wife is stay at home mum now. We have a couple of joint accounts but also both have our own accounts. I put a fixed amount into a joint account each month and she transfers some of that into her personal account to do whatever with. House related stuff goes from a joint account.
 
Joint account for the mortgage, all the bills, food shopping and weekend activities like restaurant etc.

Personal accounts for our own travel costs her car etc.
 
Maccy said:
Both have our own separate accounts and a joint account for mortgage, bills etc.
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Not married but my partner and I do exactly this. All bills/mortgage into a joint account. Salaries in seperate accounts, savings in seperate accounts.
I think she'd be happy doing it all joint, but I like to have financial independence in my life as it's what I've always known and am comfortable with.

When children inevitably start popping out, all that goes to pot no doubt :p
 
Together 13 years married 3, met when we were 16. Since we got our first house roughly 4 years ago, we've always put half our wages into what we call the "house account" all the bills, mortgage, food shopping come out of that. It's the fairest way to do it, that each person still has spending money and all the bills get covered
 
I've been married twice and done it both ways. Current wife we have separate accounts but we do it that way because she doesn't work and by me transferring to her what my father used to call 'House Keeping' money it gives her a sense of independence to spend on what she wants within reason without my prying eyes on it making her feel guilty because I'm earning all the money. We made a choice to move out of town and have only one of us work because as a couple we're happier if only one of us is stressed at the end of the day. The other provides a nice balancing influence rather than both bitching about work. So I value the money I bring in as much as the value she brings in looking after me and the family and being a positive influence on our lives.
 
BigT said:
I've been married twice and done it both ways. Current wife we have separate accounts but we do it that way because she doesn't work and by me transferring to her what my father used to call 'House Keeping' money it gives her a sense of independence to spend on what she wants within reason without my prying eyes on it making her feel guilty because I'm earning all the money. We made a choice to move out of town and have only one of us work because as a couple we're happier if only one of us is stressed at the end of the day. The other provides a nice balancing influence rather than both bitching about work. So I value the money I bring in as much as the value she brings in looking after me and the family and being a positive influence on our lives.
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Out of interest do you have children?
 
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