What is the percent of my take home pay my wife should be allowed to spend?

Question

Please keep in mind that rent take up 25%, house hold stuff takes up 30%, monthly bills take up 15%. That leave 30% of my take home pay. I want to be fair, but I also want to save for the future. I figure whatever she get I get and equal share the rest can be saved. So how much should my wife and I be allowed to spend out of the 30% left over?

Answer 1

My thought is that you have accounted for 70%, and they recommend that you save/invest at least 10% of each check.

Leaving 20%. In theory fair is 10% each, but if you're not going to "use" all of your 10%, put some extra in savings and let her use what you don't put in savings.

But make sure that both of you have to agree to take the money out of savings, or it may move without your say so anyway.

Answer 2

Think of it this way. You have rent taking up 25%, house hold stuff taking up 30%, monthly bills taking up 15%. Out of that 30% you should take an additional percentage and put it into a savings fund. You should also think of a 401K (Or retirement fund). I'd say 10-15% of that for the first little while to give yourself a nice little nest egg. Then after that you can reduce the percentage saved. The two of you should talk it out, but you should have higher priority over the money YOU earn. Does she have a job? If she does she should put some of her money into savings too for your future investements (house, kids, schooling and retirement).

Answer 3

It also depends what you both want to spend the money on and what you're saving for.

I'm not sure there's a percentage but if there is it would make sense to do it half and half. So she doesn't have a job? What does she do during the day (as in a lot of housework, looking after children, ill etc?) Can she work? Is it by choice, did the both of you decide?

I personally think depite anything, as the only worker you should be entitled to a bit more.

Think about what you're saving for too. If you're saving for a new kitchen but only your wife wants one then that isn't a fair distribution of the money or money going to savings.
If you are saving for a car which would benefit you both then that would be fine.
If she is saving for some expensive item and you are saving for something 3x that amount then how do you work that one out? Do you buy the first thing that is cheapest or what?

Take into account, if she stays at home depending on what she does she will be bored so maybe wants stuff more to do with entertainment in the house, or nights out to get socialising so this should be considered. (or maybe YOU are the one more in need of socialising, depending on the kind of job you have)
Also remember if she's a typical woman needing to get girly things done it is considerably more expensive to be female than male! You might not think that trips to salons or tons of beauty products are necessary but believe me the stuff they do is hard to do on your own and the prices in salons are scary, especially when you need to go frequently (!) So take that into account too. For women, despite what they say, treatments and taking care of yourself is not a luxury, it is necessary and expected.
But does she make the bills more expensive by using uneccesary electricity? It sounds silly but it should be considered. If not only to keep the bills down.. You might be paying for a TV and it running all day and you never get any use out of it.

So basically I have no answer lol. But really it is all depending on your personal situation and what you both buy and save for.
Cancel out all or most of the "necessary" can't-live-without individual buys. Then make it as equal as possible for luxuries or money wasting things.
The amount of stuff put to save is entirely dependant on the kind of things you're saving for. It wouldn't make sense to put a tiny amount away if you're saving for something huge or something like a holiday every year. You might need to sacrifice some buys for others.

Answer 4

you say there is 30% left after bills but without savings... I would take 20% of what is left and put it into a saving account and then you have 10% left for entertainment... so you get 5% and she gets 5% ... It does not seem like much but remember you are saving for the future

Answer 5

First, you should decide what you want to put into savings. To do this you should consider what you are saving for, a new car? a new house? retirement? Then you should decide what percentage of your pay you want to put into savings in order to achieve that goal (5%?, 10%?, 15%?) and what type of savings to put it into (stocks, bonds, mutual funds, CDs, cash savings accounts). So when you get paid, you should set aside the money for rent, household expenses, bills and savings and then whatever is left is yours (and your wife's) to spend on whatever you wish!

Answer 6

I am impressed that you are trying to save :) I think that it depends on what you want to save. I would be spending 10% of that 30% and I think that it should be spent on things that you do together. If one person is spending the whole amount there would be problems.

Answer 7

My married friends got a set amount each t ospend on whatever they wanted.
I think it was only a couple of hundred bucks, but save they did

Answer 8

Hmm...none (And I'm a wife, myself!!!) She should get her own job for "spending" money!!! Or, live with her spending the money. If you let her live by the motto "what's yours is hers" then she should get it.

Oh, and for actual financial advice, it's recommended that 10% of each paycheck should be put aside.....

Answer 9

I think you should be honest with your feelings with her and discuss it further and please remember it takes two these days and she may have to consider working herself for a while until you both get a nest egg built up for the future.

Answer 10

10% goes to you, 10% goes to her and 10% to be saved up in your joint account with her.