Forum | Love and Money - Partners or Roommates

One way to approach management of money in a relationship is each person keeps their own financial resources and common expenses are shared 50:50. Call this the roommate solution for this is generally how financial management is done when unrelated individuals share a living arrangement. I don’t know your financial details, you don’t know mine and as long as we each put in to pay the common bills on time, no problems.

If you are in a committed relationship and this is how the money is approached this is a great business relationship. You can probably maintain this for a while but what happens when one half of the relationship wants something the other half can’t afford? The lesser income partner always trumps the higher because if he or she can’t afford half, the household goes without? The natural progression of this is easy to foresee – the one with greater financial resources will start covering the costs of those wanted items. In the beginning, no problem, maybe gratitude or appreciation for accessing more than the individual might afford.

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