In a marriage, do you think one person should handle the finances, or both?
In marriage, a lot of the decisions that a couple will make will be based on their personal preferences, and the strengths and weaknesses that the husband and wife have individually.
Some of us are naturally good at managing money, but some of us are poor at managing money.
If a husband (or wife) is poor at managing money, and the wife (or husband) is good at money-management, it makes sense that the wife (or husband) should be in charge of their finances, or at least carry more weight in the ultimate decisions they make.
Let the spouse with the most strength, talent and ability for money-management make most of the decisions, or at least allow their influence to play a greater role in the family's financial decisions.
If it isn't clear who is better at money-management, you'll need to gain more marriage experience, make compromises and handle your finances together - Eventually though, I think it will become clear who makes the best financial decisions, especially after 8 to 15 years of marriage.
P.S. I don't think an equally split 50-50% talent for money-management between couples is common, but if it happens, both the husband & wife should be able to manage their money together, with equal say and seamlessly.
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Since getting together with my girlfriend, (now wife) when I was only 17 and a half we pretty much combined our money and never went down the separate money road. It's worked for us. We have a joint bank account where all income lands and then it get's dispersed from there to wherever it needs to go. We both have cards linked to a personal account and so always have access to our "own" money but it essentially all comes from the one main account.
It works for us.
Oh, my wife handles all the finances and bill payments generally. Not because I'm bad at it, just for convenience sake. We make all financial decisions together though. I guess everyone does it different. After 31 years together for us it's still working so we'll roll with it.
Thanks for the feedback @galenkp it looks like both of you might be equally good at choosing what to buy and making sure that there is enough money (and possibly even excess) to pay the bills - But it could also be that it is more convenient for your wife to manage your finances and the bills because she is at least slightly better and/or more natural at it than you (I forgot to mention that sometimes the husband is good at money-management but the wife can be even better and visa-versa).
I still make some financial decisions of my own with our family's finances but it is usually for exceptions like our investment in Steem, domain names and random things that I like.
When it comes to clothes, my wife always knows the best things to buy since I don't have a knack for fashion or finer things. She is the one that chooses the type of things that @zaclucasrice and I wear (shirts, shoes, hats, etc.).
I have also found that @emaferice purchases things that we get real value from (i.e. the car we decided to buy was prompted by her). I got to enjoy the new car she wanted but the house I chose to buy for us in 2011 gave her a really hard time until we sold it.
I gave @emaferice the freedom to choose where we'd live after selling it in 2017 and we are now renting a better place than any of the many places we have rented throughout our marriage.
I've enjoyed almost everything she purchased in the last 4 years of our 8+ years of marriage but a lot of the things I purchased and invested in didn't give her joy but a headache instead. She also resells most of the stuff she buys and now pays for most of our non-disposable shopping needs with the money from those sales.
Because of her impressive talent for money-management and management in general, I give her a 85% voting weight in my financial decisions. The 15% that I hold can still add up over time since I only use my votes occassionally but overall, I make much better decisions this way.
@emaferice is one of the reasons I started buying in Steem only modestly, once a month and is a big reason why I won't lapse my commitment to only invest $130 USD each month in Steem Power. So far, it has worked well for me 😊
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Possibly, but I work as a Business Manager for a very large company so I know how to manage things. We are both equally capable I guess, but I let her do it because that's how it's always been.
I buy silver and gold and that never gets discussed. I just buy it and sometimes she doesn't know. I'm sure she buys things I don't know about but we are fully trusting of the other that we won't do anything silly financially. We typically make financial decisions on a 50/50 split. If we don't agree we don't do it.
Mate, after so many years married it would be odd for me to take over the finances. In fact I fear it. I do not want to do it. My wife does a great job and that's all that matter I guess.
Everyone has a different situation but for us we are respectful of the other's wishes, hopes and thoughts and we always talk it out logically. We were doing just that today in fact and I'm just about to write a post that is exactly about this topic. My wife wants to sell something we have and I don't. We are still talking it through. It's quite an expensive item and the funds from it will be used elsewhere so I get her reasons...But I still disagree. I'm not sure how it will come out, but I'll write about the decision. :)
Happy wife happy life? Hmm, maybe...We'll see.