I'm a 30/M and girlfriend is 27/F. We've been dating for 10 years, and living together for about the past 6 years. We started out renting together, both on the lease, and splitting bills 50/50. Then she went back to school, and I was making enough money at the time, so I paid everything except her car payment ($325/mo) while she was in school.
She graduated, and got an entry level job, and has been paying 50% of our monthly bills for the last 6 months or so. The main issue has been that our incomes are pretty different, and I have a lot of left over money each month, and she's basically living paycheck to paycheck. I was initially open to splitting the bills proportional to income, but I wanted her to sit down and make out a budget, which she never did, so I just split everything up 50/50.
I have a very good handle on my finances, have a few months emergency fund saved up, just finished paying off student loans by paying a lot extra each month, and have savings goals for new car, vacations, etc.
She has never been good with finances. She's always been broke. She does pay her bills on time, but then tends to spend whatever is leftover, and then has a crisis when something unexpected comes up. She has a couple grand on credit cards and is only making the minimum payments.
I don't like the dynamic that we have now, where I have a lot of leftover money, and she feels broke all the time. I could just take over all her stuff for her, but that wouldn't teach her anything, and if something happened to me, she'd probably be back in trouble financially. My parents were never good with finances, and I had to learn for myself, but it's been a hugely empowering feeling to be financially secure and confident. I want her to have this same feeling, but I do worry that if I lower her bills, she will just go out and spend more on needless stuff. Or if, we combine finances to a household system, we will constantly argue over whether or not we need things.
I guess I'm just looking for ideas that have worked for others, suggestions, and feedback. For a little more info, my take home pay is $3600/mo and hers is $1600/mo. Our combined bills are about $1300/mo, and she has student loans @ $120/mo and come credit card balances/payments, about another $100/mo. If anyone has questions or needs more info, let me know and I'll post it. Thanks!
Submitted July 25, 2017 at 11:41AM by asteroid85 http://ift.tt/2uVWPjU
