I Will Teach You To Be Rich: No guilt, no excuses - just a 6-week programme that works

by Ramit Sethi

When One Person Earns More Than the Other Once you and your significant other start sharing expenses, questions will invariably come up about how to handle money on a daily basis, especially if one of you has a higher income than the other. When it comes to splitting bills, there are a few options. The first, and most intuitive, choice is to split all the bills fifty-fifty. But is that really fair to the person who earns less? They’re spending disproportionately more, which can lead to resentment and, often, bad money situations. As an alternative, how about this idea from Suze Orman? She encourages dividing expenses based proportionately on income. For example, if your monthly rent is £3,000 and you earn more than your partner, here’s how you might split it up: DIVIDING EXPENSES BASED ON INCOME You Your partner Monthly income £5,000 £4,000 Rental payment £1,680 £1,320 (5,000/9,000 = 56%) (4,000/9,000 = 44%) There are lots of other options. You can each contribute a proportional amount into a joint household account and pay bills out of that. Or one person can cover certain expenses, like groceries, while the other handles rent. The key takeaway here is to discuss it, come to an agreement that feels fair (remember, fifty-fifty is not the only definition of “fair”), and then check in every six to twelve months to make sure your agreement is still working for both of you.