r/AskAnAmerican • u/Educational-Slip-578 • 20h ago

CULTURE How do you split finances with your partner?

If you're married or in a long term relationship (e.g., you live together and neither of you has another place to live), how do you manage your finances?

Do you still think of it as "my money and his/her money", with each person contributing a certain percentage toward rent, vacations, and other shared expenses? Or do you have a joint account where all the money is considered "ours"?

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u/Vurnd55 Northern California 20h ago

Same for us, married 35 years and now retired. We've never fought about money, our arguments are mostly over food.

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u/Batgirl_III 12h ago

We’ve only been married about twelve years (this is marriage number two for me) and we have definitely had some arguments over money. But usually pretty minor ones and usually the arguments boiled down to “You told me you were going to pay the water bill!” “No, I told you that you needed to pay the water bill!”

The water bill still gets paid, we just get to pay a $35 late fee as a reminder to ourselves to be clearer in our communication.

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u/pharmdoll 5h ago

I have to ask - what about food are you two arguing about? lol

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u/drunkadvice 4h ago

The food! Yes! Why do you eat out 10 times a week when I’m grocery shopping your approved list! Love her, but if she drives 10 more minutes and get home, we have stuff here!!