Quote From: mgoff1I have to say that i am married to a man that we do not pool our money together but we do split the bills down the middle. I am a working mother with certain bill of my own such as
car insurance, medical bills for which I feel I am responsible for. we both work hard for our
money and it seems to work out great.
Splitting it down the middle is fair ONLY, and ONLY if you BOTH earn the exact same money...benefits and all. What if your hubby makes 4 times more money than you? it's not fair to split it down the middle then.
When my DH and I married, I was making 1/3 of the joint income, so we sat down and totalled up the necessities of life: Rent, Transportation, Food, Clothing, Retirement, Savings. We both contributed to our joint expenses based on our compensation 2/3 from him, 1/3 from me. Every year, with every raise and changes...we'd review and adjust. Everything left over after we paid the joint expenses was ours to play with. I resented sometimes that he had MUCH MORE discretionary income than me. However, anytime I asked for something over and beyond my fun money...I got it., so there was no trouble there.
Now I'm a stay at home mom so Hubby is paying 100 percent of everything. Again, we re-ivaluated and reviewed the budget and budgeted fun money for both of us. Hubby recognizes that though I may not be bringing home the dollars, I AM contributing IN KIND with taking care of our home and our child. My hubby knows how much it costs to hire a professional maid, cook, child care provider, and petsitter...so he doesn't complain one bit.
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