How to split bills based on income

Three ways to split bills as a couple

Most couples land on one of these. TD Bank's guide for couples names the first two, and Ramit Sethi describes the second and third.

• 50/50. Each of you pays half of every shared bill from your own pay.
• By income (proportional). Each of you pays the share of the bills that your pay is of the two pays together.
• Pooling. Both pays go into one pot, the bills come out, and what's left is split evenly.

TD Bank says the straightforward 50/50 split works well, especially when both partners earn similar amounts. When incomes differ, it suggests a proportional split: if one partner earns 60% of the household income, they might pay 60% of shared expenses. Ramit Sethi says proportional contributions usually work better than 50/50 when incomes are significantly different.

A worked example: $5,200 and $3,400 take-home

Say one of you takes home $5,200 a month and the other $3,400, and you share $3,000 of bills (rent, utilities, internet, groceries). Together that is $8,600. These are the same numbers the fair split calculator starts with.

Under 50/50 the bills take 29% of the higher pay and 44% of the lower one. Under a split by income they take about 35% of each. Under pooling, you each end up with the same $2,800, and the higher earner puts in $2,400 to get there.

Notice that splitting by income still leaves the higher earner with more left over ($3,386 against $2,214). It makes the bills weigh the same on each of you. It doesn't make your leftovers equal. If you want that, pooling is the way that does it.

The formula, step by step

1. Add the two take-home pays. $5,200 + $3,400 = $8,600.
2. Find each share. $5,200 ÷ $8,600 = 60.5%, and $3,400 ÷ $8,600 = 39.5%.
3. Add up the shared bills. $3,000.
4. Multiply. $3,000 × 60.5% = $1,814, and $3,000 × 39.5% = $1,186.

The same method works for any gap in pay. Here is what $3,000 of shared bills comes to as the split moves away from even:

For other ways couples set this up, see seven ways couples split money, or what to do when incomes are uneven. Splitting a lot of rent? Check what percentage of income should go to rent, and for the paying back part, paying a partner back.

How to split rent by income

Rent works like any other shared bill. Use the same shares. On $2,000 of rent, the 60.5% / 39.5% split puts about $1,209 on the higher earner and $791 on the other. Do it for the whole shared total, not bill by bill, so one set of shares covers everything.

Take-home or gross pay?

Use take-home. It's what lands in the bank after tax and deductions, and it's the only money either of you can pay a bill with. Gross pay can make the picture off: two people on the same salary can take home different amounts if one has a larger 401(k) contribution, health premiums, or lives in a state with higher tax.

One catch: if your pay varies, use an average for a few months, not your best month.

What counts as a shared bill

Write the list down together before you do any math. Common ones are rent or mortgage, utilities, internet, home or renters insurance, groceries, and anything for a child or a pet. Things that are only one person's, like a phone plan, a student loan or a gym, usually stay with that person.

Dates and trips sit in between. Some couples count them as shared; others pay for them out of personal spending. Either works. Pick one and stick to it.

When one bill needs its own split

You can use a different split for one bill and leave the rest alone. A couple might split rent by income, groceries 50/50, and a car one of you drives mostly alone entirely on the driver. Keep the exceptions few. The more there are, the harder it is to see whether the whole arrangement is fair. Wonderful lets you split one bill its own way, if you'd rather not track it by hand.

What if one of you has debt?

Debt is the part couples most often leave unsaid. TD Bank's guide asks the question directly: if one partner has a personal debt load, like a college loan, do they share responsibility for paying it back? There isn't one answer, so here are the two ways couples usually handle it.

• Keep it personal. Split the shared bills on take-home pay as usual, and the person with the loan pays it from what they keep. In the example above, the $3,400 earner keeps $2,214 after bills and pays a $400 loan from that.
• Take the payment off first. Subtract the payment from that person's take-home before you work out the shares. Then it is $5,200 and $3,000, a total of $8,200, so the shares are about 63% and 37%. On $3,000 of bills that is $1,902 and $1,098.

The second way treats the loan as a cost that comes before the bills, so it shifts a little of the shared load to the partner without the loan. Whether that feels fair is for the two of you to say. Ramit Sethi's page notes that couples paying off debt might cut guilt-free spending to 15 to 20% until it is gone, which is another way to make room without changing the bill split.

How to split bills with kids

Childcare, diapers, school costs and a bigger grocery bill usually go on the shared list. Add them before you work out the total, and the shares come out of the new, larger bills. A baby also changes the pays behind the shares: parental leave can cut one pay for a few months. Sethi's page lists starting a family among the changes that call for an immediate review of the percentages, so plan to rerun the split when it happens, not at the next yearly check.

Some couples keep a child's costs out of the by income split and divide them evenly. As above, either is fine if you both chose it. Keep the number of exceptions small.

What if one partner isn't working?

Run the same math with a take-home of $0 and it gives an answer that doesn't fit most couples: the working partner pays 100% of the bills. The sources we read, TD Bank and Sethi, don't address this case, so here is only the arithmetic. On $5,200 of take-home and $3,000 of bills, pooling leaves $2,200 to split, which is $1,100 each. The working partner puts in $4,100 and $1,100 goes to the other, so you each end with the same $1,100.

Some couples add a personal spending allowance for each person on top of the bills. Sethi's page says that if you contribute proportionally, personal allocations should match the same proportion. With one pay at $0 that rule would leave the partner at home nothing, so it is a good example of a formula that needs a conversation, not a default.

Joint account or paying each other back?

There are two ways to move the money once you have the shares. One is a joint account for the shared bills. Sethi describes joint checking as covering shared fixed costs like rent, groceries and utilities, with individual accounts for each person's guilt-free spending. Each of you sends your share on payday. On our example that is $1,814 and $1,186 a month. The tradeoff TD Bank names is privacy: both partners can see all spending in a joint account.

The other is keeping separate accounts. One of you pays a bill, and the other sends their share back, by Zelle or Venmo. That keeps your accounts your own, at the cost of keeping a running tally. If the rent is $2,000, the person who pays it gets $791 from the other each month. YNAB's couples guide works through the same idea: split the rent, one person writes the check, and the other gives their half to them.

A middle path is common too: a joint account for the fixed bills and paybacks for the rest. TD Bank describes a hybrid like that, with joint accounts set aside for certain expenses and savings goals. Our Honeydue comparison looks at an app built around that kind of shared view.

Revisit it when pay changes

A split by income is only as good as the pays behind it. A raise, a new job, parental leave or a pay cut changes the shares. Check it when either pay changes, and put a yearly check on the calendar anyway. Ramit Sethi suggests reviewing a couple's percentages after major life changes. TD Bank suggests reviewing the budget at least once a month, which is also a good time to notice that something is off.

Run your own numbers

The fair split calculator takes both take-home pays and your shared bills and shows all three ways side by side. Nothing you type leaves the page. For the bigger picture of setting up money as a pair, see budgeting for couples.

To list the shared bills before you split them, use the household expenses list.