To ask if you and your DP/H earn hugely differing salaries, how you manage money?

[RedHareWithBlondeHair]

My partner and I earn very different salaries. Currently this isn't an issue as we pay/spend relative to our earnings but I wonder about the future because we talk about certain big purchases/spends that one of us will only be able to contribute something like 10% to, if that, leaving the other to pick up the 90%. It's not an issue at the moment but I do see it becoming one.

At times, I've felt like I live with an 11 year old who gets to use the credit card.

:)

We talked a bit about money before we married (we had a great pre-marriage course that asked really practical questions like how much will you save, how often do you expect to see your families, how many children do you want, is there anything completely off the menu sexually - you wrote your answers separately and then swopped the answers). I think I would find it very stressful to be with someone whose attitudes to money and spending were fundamentally different to mine. Although my best friend is a complete spender/non saver and I love her dearly.

DH and I each earn 6 figures but have, at different times, taken a few years off work. Me for extended maternity and him sabbatical / extended paternity. During these periods, each were earning nothing at one point.

Since we've been married we've simply had a single 'pot'. It works as we're each 'responsible' to the other so there's sensible spending. Large purchases are discussed.

DH jokes about a 'divorce fund' which is an account with a few hundred in but that's so he can buy me the odd present without the bank statement ruining the surprise.

It's all just family money to us so we don't have an issue

Everything is shared. I could not be married to someone who didn't have the same viewpoint as me on this as, to me, it's incomprehensible how a married couple cannot pool all finances.

Joint account....

DH earns 10 times what I earn. It's all family money and it's not an issue.

Dh earns way more than I do. We pool finances and share everything.
I used to earn more than him and it was the same.

Dh earns more. We did a budget that included every possible expense. We work it so dh pays x amounts for bills, keeps x amount for spending and puts rest into joint savings. I also keep same amount out of my wages for spending, then lesser amounts into bills and savings accounts.

Only joint account we hold is savings. The bill account is in my name and dh pays bill money into that. But our money is split so we both have same spending power.

When I was on maternity leave. Dh paid all bills, transfered me spending money so we still had the same to spend and didn't put any hung jnto savings.

Dh is not great at organising money so I handle that side of things

@rachrach2 my DH and pool everything and I think of us plus our children as my financial unit. But if something were to happen to my dh and I remarried, I wouldn't have joint finances with him. The way I see it, my kids and I would still be a financial unit, and the assets would belong to them, not a new husband. May be a joint account that we both put a set amount into for living expenses, but definitely not total joint finances.