Whether you're newlyweds, engaged, or in a committed relationship, you and your partner need to find ways to handle your finances together. Managing money as a couple can be challenging, but with open communication plus Loqbox’s guide to financial planning for couples, you can build a strong financial future together.
Money management for couples can be a constant struggle and cause lots of stress, especially if you’re living together and sharing living costs. It doesn’t matter if you’re interested in financial planning for married couples, engaged couples, childless couples, gay couples, or young couples – there are some fundamental ways that budgeting as a couple can work for everyone.
7 tips for financial planning as a couple
Taking the time to learn some simple and effective techniques for managing finances as a couple can help you to focus on the important things in life, like spending time with your families, making memories, and enjoying your adventures together. So let’s get into it!
1. Talk to each other!
It sounds obvious, we know, but one of the most important things when it comes to couples’ financial planning is an open and honest line of communication - in fact, that’s true for all kinds of relationships. Talk openly to each other about your individual financial goals, spending habits, debts, and income. Find time to chat about money and make sure you both have a voice and feel heard.
Trust and fairness are absolutely crucial to managing finances in a marriage, or any other relationship. You both need to be - and feel like - equals. Set your boundaries, and be clear about the level of independence you both want. Don’t shy away from considering what would happen if you split up or divorced. Better to plan for it and not need it, than need it and not have it!
It’s also important to plan out and set your short-term and long-term financial goals as a couple. These goals may include saving for a deposit on a house, planning for retirement, booking a dream vacation, or paying off your debts. Break them down into achievable milestones and create a timeline you can both agree on.
2. Build a budget together
OK, maybe it’s not a plan for date night, but you should work on a budget together that tracks all your combined income, expenses, and financial goals. Start by recording your expenses for a few months to get a clear idea of where your money goes. Once you’ve got a few months of your expenses and income, building a budget is actually super easy (and luckily, we’ve got a great expense tracker for couples that you can download here).
Here’s a great budget planner for couples to use called the 50 30 20 rule. All you have to do is break your joint income into percentage chunks. 50% is for the things you need (essential expenses, like rent and bills), 30% is for all the things you want (nonessential expenses, like entertainment), and 20% can go towards your joint financial goals. We think this is the best way to budget as a couple.
Because this works with percentages, it doesn’t matter if your incomes go up or down, or if one of you earns more than the other, you’ll both always be contributing a reasonable and useful chunk of your income towards your joint goals. Remember, careers aren’t set in stone. Things could change, but the budget will still make sense!
3. Open joint and separate accounts
Joint accounts can be really useful, but you have to be sure that it’s the right time in your relationship to open one. When you start a joint account, you are joining yourself to your partner's credit history and giving access for both people to use not only the money in the account, but also any of the credit that is associated with it. So trust is key when it comes to handling finances in a marriage (or any other relationship).
It shouldn’t be a light decision, and you should feel comfortable that you can keep money separate while still being in a great relationship. Money can make things harder. But if you’re in a place in your relationship where you feel comfortable to share your finances in this way, consider opening a joint account for your essential outgoings.
You can pay in 50% of your income each (for the above budgeting rule), or just split your total joint monthly expenses in two. Either way, set up Direct Debits so these payments are made automatically as close as possible to pay day. That will help get the essentials covered before either of you can be tempted to spend the money on anything else.
Set up your rent, mortgage, and bills to come out of the joint account automatically as well. This way, as soon as both incomes land, they’re sent off to the joint account and split out to pay off your essential outgoings before you’ve even noticed. Trying to organise money transfers and paying bills individually every month can add extra strain where you just might not need it.
Use your joint account for bills, and maybe also for your standard grocery shopping. That can often become a hidden drain if one of you does more of the food shopping, or more of the cooking. You may also want to create another joint account for your shared financial goals, which you could send 20% of your income to each payday.
Otherwise, keep your money separate. The money that you have for yourself should just be for yourself. You may want to spend it on your other half anyway, with treats or meals together, but some financial independence is also important in any relationship. Let the joint accounts take care of all the boring stuff: the rest of your hard earned cash is for fun.
4. Pay your debts first
Once you have money from both partners going towards your financial goals, it’s time to decide what to do with the money. You might be tempted to start saving straight away. But if you have any joint debts, you should think about paying them off first.
One big reason to clear your debts is because it will improve your saving power in the long run. Interest that you pay on debts can be a lot more than interest you earn on savings. So by letting debts sit untouched, you are effectively leaking cash which could be going towards your savings and financial goals.
5. Start an emergency fund
Once you’ve managed to pay off your debts, you should think about setting up an emergency fund. Life is full of surprises, so it's important to get a pot of money together to cover you when those curveballs appear. Having an emergency fund is a great way to ease the strains on a relationship and improve your collective financial wellbeing.
It is usually a good idea to save about three to six months’ worth of your living expenses as a safety net in case of unexpected events like a job loss or medical emergencies. Of course, every couple is different, so work out together what you think will give you a reasonable buffer and what you think you can afford.
6. Tie the knot (?!)
Wait… what? OK, so that’s a big decision and you shouldn’t be making it for financial reasons. But if you’re already married, you’re engaged, or you’re thinking about popping the question, it’s worth knowing that there are some financial benefits for couples who are married or in a civil partnership.
If one of your incomes is lower than the Personal Allowance, which is currently frozen at £12,570 (until April 2028), then you could benefit from the Marriage Allowance. In this case, the partner who earns the lower amount could transfer up to £1,260 of their Personal Allowance to the other partner. That in turn reduces their tax bill by up to £252 a year.
7. Grow your credit scores
Your credit scores are numerical values that are given to you by the top three credit reference agencies (CRAs) in the UK. Those are Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion. They record your credit history and use it to generate the credit scores, which let you know how creditworthy you appear to lenders.
If either of you don’t yet know your credit scores, you can check them with each of the CRAs for free, and without hurting them, using these services:
ClearScore (uses Equifax data)*
Credit Club (uses Experian data)
Intuit Credit Karma (uses TransUnion data)
*For transparency, we wanted to let you know that ClearScore pay us a small commission if you sign up using this link.
If you decide as a couple that you want to get a mortgage, take out a large loan, or open any lines of credit, you will both be credit checked. Generally speaking, the higher your credit scores the more likely you are to be accepted for credit and the better the interest rates you will be offered.
This is important because - especially when it comes to large credit lines like mortgages - getting the best interest rates could save you thousands of pounds in the long run, so it’s well worth making sure that both of your credit histories are in good shape.
Be open and honest with each other about your credit. If you are both declined because one of you has bad credit, that can impact on both of your credit scores. So don’t let it be a surprise! And if one, or both, of you have bad credit - don’t panic! You can get it sorted.
One of the quickest ways to grow your credit score is by getting started with Loqbox. For just £2.50 a week (less than a single coffee!), your Loqbox membership gives you access to Loqbox Grow, Loqbox Save and Loqbox Rent. You could grow your credit score by up to 300 points in the first three months using all three of these products together.
Improvements to your credit score are not guaranteed.
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png)
.png){kind=small}