At Super-Advice we are about all things financial, but more importantly, helping people understand so they can get ahead financially.
In today’s blog post we share with you how couples should manage their finances.
What doesn’t work
We get a lot of questions on how couples should manage money, and it’s not anything that is ever taught. There aren’t really any lessons. Usually, it’s just trial and error until something has worked out, so we thought we would just share with you how we do it at Super-Advice.
Typically in the past, your partner and yourself have one account and all of the pay goes into that account. And then essentially it’s a race to see who can spend the money.
In our experience, ultimately what happens is there is the person who will hit the bottom first and get grumpy.
“Where’s the money? I haven’t spent any of it.”
And it would cause arguments.
What does work?
Over the years we have tweaked away and in our households here, we’ve got a way that works really, really well.
What we essentially do is add up all of the bills that run the household.
They will be food, power, internet, water, mortgage repayments, and insurances.
Anything that is combined together is set up into a joint account and automatic payments look after it.
No one actually physically pays a bill around here anymore, and I’m sure a lot of you are similar.
What happens is you can see what the costs are.
For example, if the household costs add up to $1,000 a week, we contribute $500 a week each out of the money that we make from our own businesses or jobs, and then the bills just come out.
We do it in a way so there’s always money left over because ultimately you want that account to grow and eventually what we do is scrape leftover money off the top and invest it.
Individual and Joint Accounts
If we are paying from our jobs and our businesses into the joint account, it means that we’ve got money left over, and that is the independent financial resources that we have.
For example, you would pay for the car that you drive out of that, you will pay for the fuel out of that, you will have coffees with friends and things like that.
Essentially what we’ve got is a joint account that pays all the joint bills, and then we’ve got individual accounts so that we can have our own financial independence.
That’s a wrap
So what do you think? Did you learn something new today? We love educating and helping people learn all about insurance and finances.
If you need any financial help or advice please get in touch with us at Super-Advice.
