How would you split joint account contribution

[fandangofandango]

Interested to know peoples views!

Before having DC, my husband and I both earnt the same salary so both contributed 50/50 to the joint account. I continued doing this when I was on full pay during Mat leave.

Since then, this has now been weighted more 75/25 due to me setting up a business and not earning anything.

I am now bringing money in so can contribute more but I don't know what a fair split would be.

My hours are restricted to 9-3 as I then do all of the childcare from school pick up. And as the same for a lot of people, I take care of the majority of meal planning, food shop, cooking, school stuff, pet stuff, house stuff, life admin etc.

Due to being self employed my earnings fluctuate so that's what's causing the debate I think. My husband is employed so has consistent income, and more personal savings than I do. At the moment I want to focus on getting some money saved (personally) as my savings have been obliterated over the last few years and I have the opportunity to build them back up again. But is it fair that I don't put in more of a %?

Would be good to hear views - I wonder if a fair way of doing it would be to ensure we both have the same amount left over after we've put £ into the joint acc ...

Do you have a pre-nub? The reason i'm asking is because it's strange to me that your married and dont pool your income.

My recommendation: Pool your income. Have a certain amount go into joint account used for all join expenses, then split the remainder 50:50.

You should both have the same disposable income. My DH and I have always done it that both our wages are paid straight into the joint account and then we draw out the same amount each into personal accounts per month.

Your wage has dropped because you've had children- your joint income is now lower but you should have access to the same amount of personal money each. If that has to be lower now, so be it.

My wage went down after we had children but we always pooled it all and then took an equal amount back out for personal use

You should be keeping more back to make up for your losses since you became pregnant, and then enough that you have the same disposable incomes.

You should also consider holding back on taking money out of the business you are starting in order to build it up as the time you've had out of the workforce and now the switch to 9-3 in a new venture means you have lost out on career and salary progress that your DH has and would keep if you split up. You also need that sort of personal financial potential. Though this may be tempered by a personal desire to follow a passion rather than money.

We’ve found fairest way since having DC is to have all income go into the joint then equal sum into our personal account which we free to save, spend on clothes, presents for each other or whatever.

It depends on whether your income (both of you) is just for you, or whether it's for the family.
We've always had all our incomes paid into the same account - sometimes DH has earned more - sometimes I have, but it's never really mattered.

You are married. Share it all, with an equal amount of disposable income. You are a fool for making yourself worse off whilst on maternity leave caring for a child that is also his.

I just prefer to keep our money separate and put in the joint account what's needed - but then leaving our own personal spends.

Guess I was just thinking on what to do on the months where I could potentially earn more (but of course I don't get hol pay etc and also have to set aside for tax!)

You're a family. All into one big pot. Don't understand his and her money in this situation

You both put your salaries into a joint account where all the household bills are debited from. Whatever is left over as discretionary spend is split equally. Discretionary spend based on income is unfair and not right in a partnership

We just have a main joint account (aside from our ISAs - a set amount goes into those every month, and we don’t touch it). Everything goes into the joint account, anything we want to buy comes out of that same account. My income has fluctuated - I’ve had promotions and pay rises, and I’ve been part time to do childcare, but we’ve always had the same arrangement. It seems to work out ok for us.

Once you have shared children, I think savings and discretionary spending should be equal. There is no other way to account for the fact that inevitably one parent takes on more responsibility of day to day parenting and thus has more impact on their earning potential. In your case, if you are restricted to working school hours by mutual agreement, it should be a clear cut case.

In fact, if your savings diminished because you were keeping up contributions during maternity leave and early years, he owes you that money back.

I never understand questions like this. “For richer, for poorer”. It’s a marriage, you are equals not matter what you bring home salary wise.

We have various accounts but they are all joint accounts.

DH and I have our own incomes go.into our personal accounts then both transfer equal amount into the joint, but we earn about the same. I like to control my own money though and so does he. You have reduced income as you are doing all chil related things. You will not have security of a pension or holiday pay. That should be taken into account. Would your DH agree 70/30 until your business is up and running properly? If so you could be aiming to move towards 60/40 in a year. Remember your income is gross whereas what gets paid into his account is net. You should set aside 25 percent of all incomings for tax and NICS. Then split 70/30 with what's left as you are doing childcare. If your child went to nursery presumably your DH would pay half nursery fees.

So, @fandangofandango , do you think the person who has the baby should work less, earn less, have a smaller pension and do more of the child care ?

Cos that’s a very old fashioned view, and not one many parents think is fair these days.
All the previous posters have it right, all money in joint pot and then standing order to your personal accounts for your own spending, and this is not for child related expenses.
In your case you will need a bigger float to cover your lack of earnings on holidays, and here a good joint spreadsheet is your friend, to predict this and to keep the money out of savings.
oh, and in a marriage, all savings should be equally held, unless there are good tax reasons for them to be in one persons name.

independence is for single people, not married ones with a child and joint financial responsibility towards that child

The problem with the joint pot, in your case, is that you're trying to set up a business and it sounds like you are trying to do that through your personal account. You really need a separate account for the business so you can easily follow your cash flow and reconcile with your revenue and expenditure. And make sure you are setting aside enough for costs you know you'll have (like tax). Then you need to decide how much of any profit to take out as "earned" money that you can treat like a wage.

That earned money can go in the joint pot or a different personal account and be the amount you consider when working out what's fair to pay towards joint expenditure or keep for personal use.

We get paid into our own separate accounts (partly because we've always done it that way, partly because DH earns rewards on his current account if a certain amount a month is paid in.) We then have a set amount we each keep for personal spending and transfer everything over and above that into the joint household account.

So, just for an example we say we'll have £400 per month each. DH gets paid £2.4k per month so transfers £2k to the joint account. I get paid £1600 a month so transfer £1.2k to the joint account.

It would probably be more sensible to both be paid into the joint account then transfer £X amount into your personal accounts each to take into consideration your fluctuations in earnings.

What have been your discussions so far? What does your husband think is fair?

This. Of course. All monies to the joint account which then pays our individual spending accounts in our case, £250 per month.

I'm se too op, also with a fluctuating income. We put everything into one pot. We always have as it's just so much more straight forward. You could just out it all in one account, work out your outgoings and split the remainder?

We just had a joint account, so much easier.

Since divorce and meeting dp we have separate accounts and it is a faff transferring money etc

This. Far the easiest and fairest
we also were massive budget keepers. Reset budget annually. My (now ex but that’s unrelated) was out of work for years and I was sole breadwinner. We did over some years struggle madly, nearly loose our home, but at other times we were fine. (30 years married)
we always paid all income into a joint account. We then agreed the budget and things like savings targets for things we needed. What was left was then ALWAYS split 50:50 and paid into our personal accounts as a “personal allowance”. That was used for our own “wants” NOT needs and to buy each other gifts that gave us some pretence of suprise.
the wants and needs differential is important. I worked and need hair cuts, work clothes, undies, toiletries etc and that came from household joint budget. But stuff like random dresses or perfume or jewellery I wanted , not needed, I bought myself and nowt to do with him. He was a bit of a gym bunny so his want was the gym membership and all add one - despite him not working or doing childcare (he had mental health illness) he could do that without asking me for money

ok, contributing into a joint fund is ok when you are starting out in marriage. But once kids come into it, people get made redundant, maternity leave, part time work, illness, more redundancies, etc etc, you really can’t go through married life constantly arguing about who contributes what.

you contribute everything you have. You agree all your needs. You pay them first. What’s left, if there is anything at all, gets split and paid into your personal accounts.

no one should have to go cap in hand to their spouse asking for money or being bailed out. I may be divorced, but it’s one thing we never disagreed on

As an aside, you could get round this potentially by transferring money from joint into his to meet min payment amount and then transferring back out. Set up DD.
About 8-9 years ago we used to run “gardening accounts”, suggested by Martin Lewis, running balance amounts through various accounts “hoovering” up good interest payments. With about 30,000 depsotited in those accounts we used to earn £1000s of interest. Interest rates fell and it stopped being worthwhile. Oh, the days of 5% interest rates on easy access!

alternatively he could do a nice bank switch to first direct or another bank, get a switch bonus and access one of their nice regular savers where the interest rates are now looking quite nice again.

really, there are ways around this if you dig - MSE sight will be good pointer.