Hi everyone,
Sorry this is long but I want to include the right information.
I'm trying to figure out how to ensure things are fair between myself and my partner as we have quite different fiances and assets.
A caveat: I have a lot of money anxiety stemming from a difficult upbringing around money, which brings a lot of guilt around spending and likely skews my views and relationship with it. So I genuinely find it hard to identify if a thought or feeling is rational.
I'll just set out the facts along with some questions.
-My partner brings home c.£28k before tax. As a freelancer I have a fluctuating income, but this tax year I will take home c.£21k before tax. It is usually around £15k before tax.
-I receive PIP for a disability. My patner considers this as income, so with PIP, he sees my gross income as £28k this year, so equal to his.
-I own the house. I pay £800, but as an unusual set up as my mortgage is split as a low fixed cost (£400) and an overpayment (£400). This was advised because of money flow by extending the term. We only consider the fixed cost in the split bills (£400). I do regret not just having this as wholy fixed to keep the term I actually wanted.
-I handle bills and my partner pays me £400 a month rent which covers half the bills and half the 'set' mortgage. We use a joint account for food, dog, etc. Before he moved in, I had a lodger paying £450, so I took a slight hit.
I am struggling because of a few reasons.
-I find the mental load/anxiety of the bills hard and worry about putting the heating on because it costs me money *it doesn't affect his monthly cost). I would like to have bills out of the joint account, but then he would be paying my mortgage, and I want to protect this, and feel stuck.
-I don't know how I feel about sharing the PIP as income. I can see it from both sides. Does anyone have any advice about disability benefits should be considered as income?
-he has a work pension, I don't have one. I want to start paying into one, but want this to be considered before my take-home, so this would bring my takehome down.
-I have quite a bit of savings, but feel terrified of spending them. I could dip into them during hard times, but I don't have a pension and they are reserved for the future. I don't know if I am being unreasonable here and I expect my partner sees me as a scrooge/greedy.
Essentially I'm asking if I am justified in wanting my partner to pay a bit more. I feel very anxious about the situation. But I also feel like a hypocrite and grabby, as I own the house, have more savings that him, and receive PIP.
I am resentful of the ease he has with money - a set takehome and set costs to me, whilst I have to juggle and stress about wildly fluctuating costs. But this is because I am freelance (I chose this because 9-5 work was too hard for me). At the moment I am bringing home nothing yet have c.£1000 outgoings but seeing my partner putting away £1000 in savings Honesly, I find it hard telling him how worried I am yet not seeing him offer to pay more some months. But this is also hypocritical of me as I bring home more than him some months, and I have more savings than him (this is my safety net when I am unwell and because I have no pension). I also feel very guilty that I own the house. But I worked so hard to be in this situation and didn't enjoy life like he did (he would get a job and then go travelling/spend it). I also could have just rented and spent money, but I chose not to so I could put down a decent deposit.
Sorry its such a long one and so messed up. I just need a little help. That might be giving myself a wobble that actually this situation is fair and my attitude/anxiety needs work. My childhood was focused around being poor/having to save money so I am terrified of spending.
Or would it be OK to ask my partner to contribute a bit more and discount the PIP?