For married men who don’t share finances and there’s a big disparity in your salaries, how do you manage those big ticket purchases with your spouse like buying a house?
Me and my wife have always treated our money as “your money is your money, do whatever you want with it but just be responsible”. It’s worked out without issues. We do have a joint account we put money into monthly where we split things like our mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc. and we split everything 50/50. She makes about 30% more than I do but I make enough where I can split it evenly and not feel limited with my remaining money.
Last night, my wife found out she got accepted for a new job she applied for and now she’s going to be more than double what I make. While I’m thrilled for her and she absolutely deserves it, it makes me wonder how we’re going to split things moving forward. We’re still in our starter home and have been looking for a new place for some time but now with such a disparity in our pays, I’m questioning/worrying what our budget for a new house is going to look like. I don’t want to be the reason we’re held back from getting a house we want that she can afford but I can’t. But at the same time, I’d like to not be struggling financially. The same thoughts cross my mind when it comes to having a baby whenever that time comes with costs for daycare and just all the baby things you have to buy.
We’ll obviously talk about it but this literally just happened so I want her to enjoy her moment before we start talking about these hypotheticals. Just would like to get some ideas on how others handle it before I go into that conversation