Should one person pay the bills or should both?

[bride2b]

For married couples, when it comes to bill paying, should one person be in charge of the bills or should both partners pay the bills together? How do you have it arranged in your family? What are the issues? Would you do it the same, or do something different? Those who have been divorced, do you have any regrets on how you had it set up?

[kyoko]

A Happy New Year, Bride2b!

As a married couple, you should always make financial decision together, including bills. I am not sure what you mean by "pay the bills together", since some people are not too good at paying bills on time. If you are good at managing and pay bills on time, and your spouse is not, you should go ahead and do it, but still your spouse should get involved and know what is going on your finance.

My husband is not good at paying bills, so I always go online and set up paying the bills even it was his purchase. I have tried to have him pay his purchase by himself, but mostly he had forgotten doing it and we got some late fees. Some people are just not good at paying bills.

It is my belief that the married couple should be considered as one, and any financial decisions, even at the small level, should be made by both party. My husband and I have quite a different value about money , but we sit down and go over our budget and financial situation throughout the month, so that helps us from getting a conflict.

[Buyingahome]

For married couples, when it comes to bill paying, should one person be in charge of the bills or should both partners pay the bills together? How do you have it arranged in your family? What are the issues? Would you do it the same, or do something different? Those who have been divorced, do you have any regrets on how you had it set up?

Best advice: don't keep count of things. If one of you keep count of who is paying for more bills than another, it can only lead to problems. You need to both be on the same page with things, talk about money and budgeting. You two share one collective household income at this point so your household will now pay all bills.

[disneysteve]

For married couples, when it comes to bill paying, should one person be in charge of the bills or should both partners pay the bills together? How do you have it arranged in your family? What are the issues? Would you do it the same, or do something different? Those who have been divorced, do you have any regrets on how you had it set up?

I think logistically, it works best for one person to handle the bills just to be sure nothing gets missed or overlooked. I never have to worry if a particular bill got paid because I'm the one who pays them all. And my wife doesn't have to worry either because she knows that I'm paying them all.

HOWEVER, that does not mean that only one person should know what is going on. It is CRITICALLY important that you both communicate and both know what you have, where it is, what is owed to who, etc. My wife and I have periodic "financial dates" where we review things so that she is up to date on what's going on. I think the problems arise in marriages where one person handles everything and the other person is totally in the dark about their finances.