Six Ways to Manage Money — and Not Fall out With Your Partner
Couples share how they divide their incomes and outgoings — and joint accounts are falling out of favour
By Claer Barrett
How much do couples know about their partner’s finances? It’s a question I have been asking after reading Me, My Money and I, a study by the challenger wealth manager Netwealth exploring “the growing financial autonomy of UK women”.
This found that younger women were much less likely to share a joint account with their partner than older generations.
Just 27 per cent of women aged 16–34 in a relationship did so — yet this figure was nearly 50 per cent for women aged 55 and over. Older women were also more likely to share savings and investments with their other halves.
Of course, how much you share rather depends on what stage your relationship has reached. On a first date, nobody expects to be quizzed about their salary or property owning status — although it definitely happens. But by the time couples are living together, there will be joint expenses to manage and money conversations will need to be had. And could younger women’s apparent aversion to joint accounts be explained by the fact they probably haven’t had children yet?
