Every year, thousands of men are used as personal ATMs by their wives. Likewise, thousands of women get to be the breadwinners and domineers over their husbands who eventually become sit-at-home dads with little to no contribution to the household.
I know in Africa, there is a tradition that is rapidly getting archaic, and that is the practice of letting men be the sole breadwinners in the family with the woman left to be in charge of the domestic management of the home.
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But, with ever-growing inflation, and increasingly difficult economic situations, this, just isn’t sustainable for an average home. Except you’re married to a president or have a billionaire husband then fine, disregard this article. But if that’s not your case, (which it most likely isn’t) then, the importance of sharing financial responsibilities can not be overemphasized. So, let’s learn how to do that in 6 simple ways.
- Plan Your Joint And Individual Expenses As Much As Possible
A reasonable wife, would not run to her husband at every instance whenever she needed money. Emphasis on reasonable. Also, the men don’t necessarily spend all their money on something that is for the whole family. They have the right to purchase things that they want for themselves and themselves only. What does this mean? Both partners have separate individual needs on which they spend their money on, and there are times they have to fund it jointly. It’s all a matter of moderation and being reasonable. Don’t “bill” your partner unnecessarily, and make plans for both of you to spend on larger more important items. - Split Bills Proportionally To Your Income
In most cases, both partners don’t earn an equal amount of money. That’s a fact. Sometimes it might just be by a couple of thousands, and other times they’re literally in different financial hierarchies. Since we’ve established that both partners should spend occasionally on their own for some things, it might be wise that each partner does this according to their own financial capacity. You can’t expect a husband that’s a low income earner to be the sole provider for a family where his wife is the Manager of a big corporation, just because he’s a man. So the respective strengths of each partner should be taken into consideration when planning financial responsibilities - Open A Joint Account
We already talked about the fact that partners have individual needs to cater for distinct from the ones they have to tackle together. Now when it comes to these type of financial burdens, the big ones, it might be wise for the couple to open a joint account where they can pool resources to use in order to take care of these humongous needs. This doesn’t mean both partners can’t still have their individual accounts to take care of their own personal needs. - Create A Budget And Stick To It
It is very wise for couples to create a financial budget to estimate their income and expenditures, and it is important to stick to it. After knowing who earns more, who handles what needs, and considering individual expenditures, a budget can be drafted to help the family sail through it’s finances successfully and help guide each partner to know his or her own responsibility. - Get Insurance
I know we’re supposed to be discussing how your family can manage it’s finances responsibly, but let’s be real, things happen. Inexplicable and random things happen. Loss of job, robbery etc and when they do, not having a backup in either partner is possible. So what do you do? Be insured. Get a family plan. On doing so, you and your husband/wife won’t have to argue like cats and rats on whose fault it is that the family is bankrupt and how hard it is to escape it. Being insured, can help cushion the effects of life, and make it easier to get back on track financially. - Get Professional Help
Just so you know, there are professionals whose job is to help individuals and couples manage their finances. They are called financial educators. Going to see one can help teach you how to allocate financial duties based on income, and overall just help your family at least in these trying times, a bit more financially stable.
