Shared finances for newly-weds

Hi All, I'm getting married soon and was looking for advice around the issues of shared finances for a couple?

What we are considering doing is to pool our take-home incomes, then pay bills, groceries, car expenses, contribute to pensions, reduce debt, put some money into savings and to end up with half of the remainder for discretionary income each...ballpark figure of 400 each per month to pay for clothes, socialising etc. Does that sound about right to you?

What debt?

Whose debt?

It's a good idea to have a shared current account to pay all the bills.

How can we tell you if 400 each is normal if we don't know your income and outgoings? That's 800 a month for clothes and socialising? How much are you planning on saving.

Congratulations on the marriage and best of luck.

Congratulations!!

Think you each need to know exactly what your own individual finances are before you agree something as a couple.

400 a month is 100 a week and weekend - is that enough?? Doubt it if you both work, though without info on costs, etc, hard to advise.

Also, keep your own individual bank accounts, set up a joint account for the common expenses and transfer your agreed monthly amounts into it, holding back your own agreed amounts for own spending. Keeps it cleaner in my view. Pooling everything is a recipe for a disaster!!

I would set up joint accounts and have everything coming into/out of there. You are married, all expenses and income should be shared. What happens down the line in case of unemployment, unpaid maternity leave, expenses in relation to children? I would start as I mean to go on from a common base.

Thanks mimes, we are on the same page I think.

I'm not sure I understand the original question. If you get married then everyone owns / owes pretty much everything so what's the point in multiple accounts and different pots of money? It'll add to the difficulty of tracking spend and will add cost. Turn one account into the household account, mortgage, utilities, insurances, pensions, loan payments, cars and use the other account for discretionary spending. Do a monthly transfer from or the discretionary spend account into the household account and the remainder is discretionary spend. Debit or credit cards tied to it track spending and Bob's your uncle.

Joint account for all bills but keep your own account(s) for personal spending, just agree how much you are going to transfer into the joint account each month and set up a standing order for it.

I think a mix of mathepac and thedaddyman, everything (ie wages etc) into the joint account and all household, savings etc from this pot as mathpac suggests, I would also include joint socialising and holidays etc from this fund. Then set an "allowance" each for personal spending (fun, clothing, lunches out, hobbies) and transfer that into the separate accounts each month. That way no arguments over who spent too much on clothes or blew the lot on the latest hobby or fad to crop up.
That way if one earns more than the other it is irrelevant (thinking down the line to possible time off for maternity or illness or job losses etc) you both should enjoy the same standard of living with the freedom to spend within agreed limits as you please.

Thanks guys, your replies were useful and along the lines of what we had planned.

We have our own personal accounts and transfer money into a joint account for all the bills.

We don't know the salary situation for both of you but if one of you gets paid more, you should contribute more to the household budget. No point in one of you being flush each month and the other being broke.

SBarrett said:

We have our own personal accounts and transfer money into a joint account for all the bills.

We don't know the salary situation for both of you but if one of you gets paid more, you should contribute more to the household budget. No point in one of you being flush each month and the other being broke.

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I agree SBarrett, the plan is for both incomes to go into the pot, pay for all bills, savings etc. from it and then we both withdraw an equal amount of discretionary spending money. Thanks for your reply.

It's horses for courses I suppose but I my case there are simply joint current, savings and credit card accounts. This works well for us, no arguments. I do the budget and my wife spends the money. I have no interest in stuff, so I suppose that helps also. If surveys are to be believed (I'm usually sceptical) then one in five women keep 'run away' accounts . . in such cases it's probably a good idea to keep one's own name also, for simplicity.