There have been a few questions on here about how Mr. HECC and I manage our finances. Some people — esp those we know in real life — think it’s strange how we keep our finances so separate. But it just works – at least as a DINK couple. With kid #1 on the way, we’ve touched on our financial plan and so far we agree will keep things as they are…
Home (Rent): 50/50
Home (Furniture): 50/50
Food: 50/50
Our Healthcare: Self pay, except health emergencies for any family member, split 50/50 (i.e. broken bone or cancer). Also 50/50 for any infertility/fertility-related care.
Kid’s Healthcare: 50/50
Shopping & Personal Care: Self Pay
Kid’s Shopping: Agree on budget & split 50/50. Either can pay more out of our personal shopping budget if we want.
Travel & entertainment: If joint / family trip, 50/50. If solo trip, person traveling pays.
Gifts: If joint friend, 50/50. If friend of one of ours, individual pay.
Cars: Self pay for our own car and gas (we own two cars, both purchased used for cash)
Education: self pay (for our own) // kid’s 529 50/50
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We manage this pretty simply. We do not have a joint account (yet.) It’s worked ok thus far. I track expenses monthly in Mint and figure out what we owe each other. He has his own credit card and we also have cards on the same accounts for cash back. Sometimes (like right now) I end up owing Mr. HECC $5000+, but it all balances out in the end (and we know since we’re married it’s all one big pool of money anyway in the long term.)
This is super helpful for us because we don’t fight over how we spend our money. Mr. HECC may raise his eyebrow when my 10th Sephora purchase of the week shows up at our door, but I manage my own money and he manages his. I cannot question his 10th Amazon box of the week either.
As far as savings go, I tend to invest aggressively and he keeps a lot of money liquid. I’d like to see him start to invest more for retirement, once he obtains a stable job with access to a 401k, but it’s also not that bad because when I end up with not enough money to pay the bills, he always has the cash to “lend” so I can pay my credit cards on time (rarely happens, but did happen after our big trips this summer when I was unemployed.) I always pay him back within 12 months, and worst case I could always sell my stock to get back to even.
Maybe this isn’t the most romantic way of managing money as a married couple, but it definitely works for us.
