Some wages maths!

[winecigsandchoc]

All other things being equal then how much each should two married people pay into a joint account if you wanted to work it or proportionate to your income?

Earner1(E1)- 33k a year
Earner2 (E2)-21k a year

Thank you!

Pay both wages into joint account. Pay bills/food/petrol/holidays/other household expenses/family days out/dinner money etc from this account. Then transfer each person equal amount of spending money for personal stuff. Leave some money in for emergencies. Save the rest into joint savings.

Put the whole lot in the joint account, and each then takes out half of what's left over after bills are covered.

In other words, you both end up with equal spending money at the end of it.

A) 60% of joint expenditure and B) 40%.

Although it really isn't as simple as that quite often I guess.

We have always just put everything into one account.

Your ratio would be 61:39 (=E1/(E1+E2)), but you'll have to be posting this on Mumsnet every time one of you gets a pay rise

We put into one pot and both spend from the same account. We each have a savings account, I put £50 a month into mine and I have no idea what DH puts in his. He works in banking and is always moving money about depending on interest rates and tax liabilities, I just leave him to it.

DH earns about 2.5 my salary so we work everything out in proportion apart from holidays , where we go 50/50.

We have a joint account and several others linked via first direct. We each also have individual accounts. Every year DH totals up the bills and works out the proportion we each pay and I transfer from my own account into the joint account. Separate amounts for the house maintenance fund, bills and mortgage so it's clear what is spent where. It's complicated but he loves playing with his money apps and doing monthly housekeeping on the finances. I have a BA Amex dedicated for the weekly shop and other joint spends when we're out and he transfers just over half into my account. We use the points towards flights every few years.

I just pay what he says is due and sort out my own credit card, savings, isa and investments.
Seems to work and we each have plenty of money left for frittering.

So is the general consensus that we go 60/40? That's what I've been saying so that we each feel the hit on our own incomes in the same way!

We've always done-
Highest earner - chunk of rent
Lowest earner - chunk of rent
So its equal eg-
1700-700=1000
1300-300=1000

And then each put in the same amount for bills and food

That means we are both left with equal disposal income.

Your total income is 33 + 21 = 54.

E1 earns 33/54 of this which is 61%
E2 earns 21/54 which is 39%.

Therefore a 60/40 split would be fair.

But that calculation doesn't take into account that the £33k earner sees a lower percentage of their salary due to paying a higher percentage of tax than the lower earner, due to the effect of the personal allowance.

If you are going to split it proportionally, which isn't fair anyway, as the higher earner will still end up with more disposable income, you need to do it on take home not salary.

Fairer to put all income in one pot and pay all joint expenses, including regular, annual/irregular, and joint savings from that pot, and split the remainder 50/50 as personal spending money.