The benefits of shared household finances are clear for couples, however, they can become a source of conflict, especially when there is a large difference between incomes and expenditures.
Couples with a joint account use it mainly to pay for collective expenses such as rent and food but also holidays, rather than personal expenses, a survey by the digital eco-bank Helios based on interviews with some 3,700 of its customers aged 18 to 45 showed.
An average of €1,174 per month is deposited on such joint accounts, while most couples leave around €1700 for their personal accounts.
Large expenses for men, women cover daily expenses
While the joint account is more likely to be opened by a man than a woman (55% of joint accounts are opened by men), the majority of daily expenses are managed by women.
They also spend more of their personal money on household expenses and health expenditures than their spouses and are more often responsible for the costs related to broadband and phone contracts as well as those related to the couple's pet or food shopping.
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Meanwhile, men are more likely to take care of expenses related to entertainment (such as bar and restaurant bills) and, more broadly, those that are out of the ordinary, such as high-tech purchases, and costs related to cars.
"The truth is that women manage assets less than they do the daily budget. This places an additional mental burden on already overburdened lives and leads to an imbalance in assets in the event of separation," Helios noted.
