How do you and your partner manage your finances as a couple?

I'm the one managing our finance as I'm much more financially savvy. We have a number in mind on when we would like to retire and the net worth at retirement. We divided this goal into yearly net worth goal and monthly saving we need to make to reach the yearly net worth target.

I keep track of all incomes, expenses, liabilities/mortgages on Excel spreadsheet. We have fully separate accounts. My husband will transfer his pay every month to my account and combined with my salary, I allocate our $$ into 5 buckets: 1) emergency funds/savings, investments, 2) joint expenses, 3) personal allowance, 4) mortgages/liabilities and 5) donation/charity/ allowance for parents. We mutually agreed that we wont question each other's purchases under bucket #3, so he can spend on whatever he wants, so can I. We are very transparent about our finances and we review our finances every month.

Plus 1 have alot of family liabilities and have to save up alone for both 😆

Like many have answered, having a joint financial account takes more than a mindset of investment alone but a common goal for the family as one :)

Fundamentally, we started off a joint account with fix standing order each month when we dated. It eventually became our wedding fund. Being prudent and blessed for our wedding, the accumulated fund eventually became our household 6months saving buffer.

TLDR we got a resale HDB using our CPA OA and nothing from our cash. Our joint account still exist today but functions as the household expenditure account. We tracked our expenditure meticulously with excel down to the dollars to know our needs and wants. Next, we knew what is the cap for our groceries and eating out so we never contribute more to the shared account exp than it should.

However, we started putting monthly investment from the shared account into DCA and other Robo for our household investment.. on our personal account saving, its our liberty to have our financial decision (like I will play direct equity that has higher risk but doesn't affect the household budget)

Our goal is never about achieving a certain financial goal by certain age. But rather sticking to the expenditure baseline that we have fixed rather than spending more despite increasing income, and just stashing off all of these to investment. mostly ETF and REITs.

My wife and me just married in early last year and we are expecting our baby boy to be delivered next month.

Just before our marriage, I created a spreadsheet to update all our assets monthly. Both of us are PR and we bought condo separately before we meet each other. The spreadsheet consist of:

· CPF (OA,SA,MA)

· Cash (SG and Msia bank saving accounts, Syfe Cash+, FSMone)

· Condo (Purchased price, market price, outstanding loan, CPF used, net amount after sale)

· Malaysia properties

· Investment (Stocks, Syfe Reits+/Equity 100, P2P lending, etc)

· SUMMARY to indicate the total amount with percentage of each category

· Total cash - emergency fund = Fund available to invest

I will update this spreadsheet and send to my wife monthly.

In last 2 years, 1st January morning, we went to nice cafe to enjoy a breakfast before we set/review yearly targets (using 7 Fs) including financial planning in detail.

When I was single, I used to invest in high risk products (Stocks trading using CFD, P2P lending for different biz, etc).

As husband and father to be, I become more careful and conservative in investments and financial planning. As couple, we shall compromise each other for risk appetite and different views in finance management.

All the best for your financial management as couple!

The journey required a lot of times and efforts but it’s worthy for your family!