Splitting bills based on income?

[Mooncake2020]

Hiya all,

Looking for some finance advice on how to split the household bills with my partner. My partner earns a lot more than i do, so we are trying to make it as fair as possible for both of us. Would splitting outgoings based on income % be the best way to go? After tax i make 16K and he makes 50K.

thanks for any help

Given your updates I think you are a family and therefore all money should be family money. So all money into one pot and an equal amount of spending money especially as your career and location have enabled his and your hours have been reduced to care for yours and his child

@ILoveMyMonkey has it spot on with this, I think.

I also think you ought to get married ASAP.

Personally I think a family should pool any income and should discuss/decide together what works in relation to working hours/childcare/big expenditure. You've been together 12 years and have a child! Why would your partner want to be sat on a lovely salary watching you scrap by!? A family should be a team. In it together.
But if that's not something that can happen I think bills should be spilt 3:1 in your case as he earns 3x as much.
Personally we pool all the money into the shared account, we both have separate accounts that we get 'spend' in (which is equal in amount) - so my hubby can have a small bet or whatever without feeling like he is taking from the account. Anything left over stays in the joint account or moved to the savings account. We make big purchases together (new car, home improvements).

I think splitting bills proportionately is a fair way to do it when there is a big difference in incomes

I disagree because this means that the higher earner has far more personal spending money, which is unfair when the lower earning partner has stepped back to do more at home that benefits the whole family and/or, as is the case here, because her partner 'doesn't want him going to nursery at the moment' but hasn't made any changes to his own working hours or salary to help facilitate this.

It also doesn't follow that a lower earner has necessarily taken an easy path at work, there are plenty of challenging and worthwhile, but low/moderately paying careers, eg nursing/teaching.

OP you're in a very vulnerable position as you're not married and you're also at a disadvantage with your pension, being the lower earner.

The fairest way would be to pool all income to pay all joint/family costs, including a private pension for you, to give you more parity with your partner. You then allocate an equal sum to both of your for your own personal spending money.

Op, your pension should be a priority bill not an optional cost.

As you are not married this is a highly vulnerable area, please,please don't ignore this area.

Have you discussed marriage?