I agree with Judith - surely a married couple should be pooling their resources instead of paying you pay for this and I'll pay for that and splitting bills down the middle ? You too are acting like a couple of single people sharing the same house. I can't see how that works when you have kids ? Do you pay here $$ each month for child support or do you split the kid's bills down the middle too. Also what happens when she has the baby and stops working for a while ? Do you pay her share of the bills and then say she owes you such and such to be paid back at a future date? And whats all this about your having 'bigger personal bills than her' ?
Surely you are a married couple. You think as a couple - so you earn $x a month between you. Your expenses are $y a month, leaving you with $z spare ?
If you don't want to share all your income - why not put x% of your incomes, say 90% into a joint account to pay bills, run cars, meals out, vacations, savings etc and the remaining 10% is yours to do with what you like no questions asked.
As to 'Am I wrong' - well personally yes I think you are, but I also think your wife is too.
Do whatever works for you and your wife - but your current arrangement currently isn't
I don't understand why it is, if you are really married, that you don't simply pool your income and use it to pay all of the bills. If you continue as you are then you should be paying a proportionate share based upon incomes. In other words, yes, you should be paying more because your income is more. You aren't roommates, you know.
If you can't figure it out then see a CPA or financial advisor - it would be worth saving all these arguments and resentments - and she has every right to be resentful. Heck, go to a bookstore and look at various books on managing household finances.
You sound like someone from the 1950s. These days couples put all their money into one account and the bills are paid from that.
I have never heard of anyone detailing each bill, and who should pay what.
Get up to date.
When you got married, your finances became her finances, and her finances became your finances. Your debt became her debt, her debt became your debt.
Sit the hell down at a table. Total how much your bills are each month, and freaking pay them. It doesn't matter who earned the money in the first place, if you don't work TOGETHER 100% you will never get rid of any of your debt.
When my husband was working, we split the the bills evenly, even though I made significantly more than he did. You only make a dollar an hour more--that's not enough to make doing the math to split it more fairly worth it.
that is a serious problem you have between you and your wife. One solution is to dump all the money in one pot, pay all the bills and then split all the rest evenly between the two of you. Remembering to include savings for your retirement before you split the money.
Yes, you need to think of the new baby, and just pool your resources and budget accordingly. Are you each saving for retirement, that is also something to consider in this pooling of resources
Yes, you are wrong. The wife is always right (unless you want to sleep on the couch). IDIOT (and I say that in the kindest way) you are married and she is now carrying your second child !
You each should contribute and equal percentage of your income to the household bills.
You both are. Tread carefully with this one. Get a financial counselor for this.
