5 Essential Tips on Managing Your Finances as a Couple
by Sumona Finance 21 February 2022
When you get married, one of the challenges you will need to face is managing your finances. Managing finances in married life is vital to keep your union happy, satisfying, and long-lasting.
If you are one of the newlyweds and are discussing how to manage your finances as a couple, you may find these five tips below a useful guide.
Brief Account on Managing Your Finances as a Couple
1. Open a Joint Account
If you’ve decided to combine your finances, the best way to do it right is to open a joint account in your trusted bank. This way, you can put your savings in one account and stick to your agreed budget.
You should also ensure that your money goes into one account and comes out of one. You and your spouse should discuss your joint savings to do this successfully. It’s also where you should bring up a reasonable budget for both of you.
Both of you should fulfill the budget you set. This budget should already cover your expenses, including utility bills, housing expenses, and groceries. By doing so, you can have a transparent finance flow that both of you can easily grasp. If you still don’t know where to start, you can search online and look at the best budget for couples.
2. Each Spouse Should Have Fun Money
Combining your finances can be an excellent way to save for your future or for something you want to purchase as a couple quickly. However, it’d be best never to deprive yourself of having fun. It’s vital that you also allocate a specific amount for recreational activities.
You can opt to open a separate checking account where you can put your fun money. Having your respective fun money will ensure you’re not deprived of the fun you can have. It’ll also be best to set a fun money budget according to your means.
Once you’ve exhausted your fun money for the month, it means that you’ll need to wait for the next month for your fund to be replenished. Therefore, you must spend wisely by only buying what you truly want.
3. Split Expenses 50/50
Since you already live together and many expenses are already shared, you should always split the expenses 50/50. You should talk together and agree on the amount you will contribute to expenses like housing, groceries, bills, vacation, date nights, etc.
Equally splitting the expenses will make it easier to pay and not create any issue between you and your spouse. Money is one of the most common reasons why couples fight. So, both of you should have equal responsibility for finances.
Dividing your financial responsibility this way will help you become fair to one another. However, if one spouse earns more than the other, it can strain the other partner. Also, equally splitting the expenses will also affect huge purchases in the future, like buying properties.
Always update your agreement, especially if you have new expenses, especially big ones, because you need to consider if the other person can afford it.
4. Have a Separate Account
Just because you decide to combine your finances doesn’t mean that you’ll lose the right to have a bank account of your own.
It’d be best to remember that even though you’re married, you’re still two separate human beings. So, when managing your finances as a couple, you should always remember to let the other partner have their account.
You should only have one joint savings account. Other accounts should be under your separate name.
It’ll give you a sense of freedom and responsibility for your own money. You’ll never have to rely on your partner even though you’re married.
If you want to manage your finances as a couple effectively, you should still have separate bank accounts.
5. Save for Unexpected Events
There are things that we can’t control. Sometimes unforeseen events happen, such as a health emergency, house damage, or car repair.
The only thing you can do about it saves money that you can use for such occurrences. You and your partner should discuss how many portions of your salaries should go into this account.
You can consider allocating 10% of your income and 10% of your partner’s income for unforeseen events.
This way, you can feel secure that whatever happens, you’re covered. In addition to saving money for such an event, you might also want to acquire insurance. It can help you with unexpected expenses that come your way.
To Sum It Up
These tips provided will help you manage your finances as a couple without losing the right to your own money. If you’re discussing your finances, following these tips provided is the best way to go.
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