tell me about how you deal with income unequality in a relationship

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > tell me about how you deal with income unequality in a relationship

cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

You guys are weirdly passionate about how other couples' finances should work. The important thing is both people discuss their situation and agree on the arrangement with no lingering issues.

In a dual income household I really don't see the issue with having separate finances. We have separate chequing accounts and separate credit cards but each of us has a secondary credit card linked to that of the other person. There was pre-existing assets coming in to the relationship so pooling doesn't really make sense in this case either. We keep track of all the expenses and divide them fairly. After that each of us is free to use our remaining incomes as we want.

I think pooling finances makes sense for single income couples or those entering a relationship with few assets but for dual income households it seems like unnecessary complication if both people are financially savvy.

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cowofwar: Jul 30, 2002; by Athanatos

T. J. Eckleburg posted:

Married couples who do separate finances make no sense to me. Why the hell would you legally marry somebody if you don't trust them absolutely? Because even if you nominally keep your assets separate, they can still gently caress you over if they decide they want to! Basically it seem like you're going to the trouble to split stuff so that you can have a false sense of security. I mean I might think differently if I had had substantial assets before getting married, I don't know, but it's hard for me to see it from that perspective.

This seems to keep coming up but it's a false dichotomy. Just because you have split finances doesn't mean you don't trust your partner.

Rudager posted:

Like I mentioned before in this thread, we just have 1 joint everyday spending account, 1 joint savings account and 1 joint home loan, there's no calculating required, no confusion about who owes what for what, or "I paid for this last time, so now it's your turn", if something needs to be bought/paid for one of us does it.

It doesn't have to be complicated or involve people keeping score. There are things I routinely buy/pay and there are things that she routinely buys/pays. Then discretionary stuff is done willy nilly depending on who wants to do what. If I want to go out for dinner I pay, if she wants to go out she pays. She has her toys, I have my toys. She budgets, I budgets. We discuss personal goals and shared goals. Everyone's happy.

Relationships work because people craft them around each other. What works for one couple isn't going to be ideal for another. There is no right or wrong way to do things when it comes to relationships.

cowofwar fucked around with this message at 02:36 on May 6, 2015

# ¿ May 6, 2015 02:30

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > tell me about how you deal with income unequality in a relationship