When Max was made redundant last year, he and his wife Hannah did not abandon their system of splitting everything 50/50. Instead, they took "drastic measures".
The couple, who have always pooled their finances since getting married in 2022, cancelled gym memberships and Sky TV – and went through their spending line by line to ensure they could still cover their mortgage and bills on a lower income.
“Couple stuck to 50/50 money split after redundancy, cancelling gym and Sky TV.”
Max, 31, had been earning £70,000 a year working in tech when they married, while Hannah, who works in the charity sector, earned considerably less. Despite the gap, they made a commitment to each other: "What's mine is yours, and vice versa," Max said.
Their salaries are paid into a joint account, from which all household costs – mortgage, bills, food, petrol – are drawn. Each month they take the same amount for personal spending, so neither feels watched when buying clothes or going to the pub. "It means we aren't accountable to each other for those things," Max added.
They also split money into different pots, including savings and smaller funds for predictable spending like haircuts.
The pair came into the relationship with very different attitudes to money. Hannah's family discussed finances openly; for Max, "money was totally taboo". He said: "We never spoke about money so as an adult I was left without any knowledge of things like what's a good salary or how to negotiate my pay."
Buying their first home forced them to be honest about earnings, savings and affordability. "As first-time buyers, there are costs you don't think about, like stamp duty and solicitor fees, so it was important we both knew exactly how much money we had," Hannah said.
Now they make money an everyday conversation. "Just this morning we were talking about what we can do to help improve our financial situation in the future," Hannah added.
Their approach goes against the grain. Research from wealth manager Quilter suggests almost half of couples do not share financial planning equally, with 46% acting alone in some way and more than one in 10 leaving one partner solely responsible. Relationship expert Karen Doherty has three pieces of advice for starting those conversations.
When the redundancy hit, Hannah – who did not want to disclose her precise salary but said it is between £40,000 and £60,000 – recalled: "There was shock and panic initially. But we sat down and really looked through where we could cut things out." The cuts worked. The 50/50 rule held.