What's a fair split?
Two pays, one set of bills. Here are three common ways couples cover what they share, with what each of you pays and what each of you keeps. None of them is the right one; the right one is the one you both think is fair.
Take-home is what lands in the bank after tax. Nothing you type here leaves this page.
50/50
Each of you pays half the shared bills from your own pay.
The bills are the same dollars for each of you, but they take 29% of one pay and 44% of the other.
By income
Each of you pays the share of the bills that your pay is of the two pays together.
60% and 40% of the bills. The bills take the same 35% of each pay, so the one who earns more still keeps more.
Pool it all
Both pays go in one pot, the bills come out, and what's left is split evenly.
You each end up with the same $2,800. The one who earns more puts in more to get there.
Wonderful does this every month, with your real bills.
You each connect your own bank and choose what the other sees. It divides what you share half each or by income, or treats it all as one pot, and keeps track of who owes whom.
Start freeWhere these come from
- TD Bank: A budget built for two (50/50, and splitting by income)
- Ramit Sethi: How to budget as a couple (by income, and combining everything with guilt-free money for each of you)
Wonderful gives general information. It isn't a financial or tax advisor.