I was watching a talk show on a local satellite channel. The issue was on sharing income and expenses in a household by spouses. A lady was complaining about her husband for leasing a car in her name and bearing major repayments. The husband had lost job. They were exposing their personal and private life infront of the audience and the show was being telecasted worldwide, I guess.
Immediately afterwards I felt so sorry for such couples. I think if both of them are earning, they should spend on the household and save for their and their childrens’ future needs with mutual consent. If one of them loses income, the other should not behave as if he/she is doing an outright favour to the other. Infact, those couples who decide to work have intrinsically decided to contribute in the family income.
I would like to know what are your views?
Re: Sharing expenses and new trends in our society!
I agree with you, although I have seen this work in one case where the wife wanted to live it up and was completely blowing the budget just because her husband was doing well career wise. he got frustrated and in the end they started splitting all bills in half. As she saw that her discretionary income had been reduced due tot his she altered her behavior and after a few years of thsi dividing expenses, they are back to normal.
There was a lack of maturity on her part in terms of finances and this exercise helped her get a reality check and be more responsible.
Re: Sharing expenses and new trends in our society!
i dunno what my future hubby will do about my impulsive shopping sprees :) im a hazard at the mall....i need to learn to control it.
or just marry a millionaire. :)
Re: Sharing expenses and new trends in our society!
what channel was this one and what time?
Re: Sharing expenses and new trends in our society!
It really depends on the individuals and what their personal agreement is. I guess most couples who work may not discuss this before hand. But most men I know whose wives work, pay all the major expenses and do investing/ retirement plan savings. Their wives may buy groceries, pay for kids stuff, their own shopping. It's easy to say 50/50 is the fair deal when both spouses work. But in most cultures men are the breadwinners. Women definitely contribute financially and in some cases make more than their husbands.
But it's most common that women contribute in many other ways than financially. Those contributions may not be recognized. As for wives who blow their 'husband's money' and are shopaholics, they could get a job themselves and relearn the value of money. When things get to the point that bills are literally split in half, that's a bad sign. For me, an ideal marriage is one in which both people are supporting eachother in many ways, not just financially and not keeping score. They just do what needs to be done without holding eachother accountable for everything.
Re: Sharing expenses and new trends in our society!
Islamically seen, a man is not allowed to spend the money that his wife earns. He is the one who is responsible for the expenses as well as maintainance of the wife no matter how rich she is.
Hmmm... personally i think that money matters should be well decided on, they should have a "spending plan", the wife pays for groceries and the crate of cola and the husband for the house, she for the children graments, he for the school and so on.
Re: Sharing expenses and new trends in our society!
Yeah, in Islam, whatever money lady earns is hers to keep and she's allowed to do whatever she wants to it. Now that's not to say, she should go buy herself something nice while her husband is jobless n they r havin trouble makin ends meet.. but if all the needs r being met on the husband's salary then why should he have a problem with how his wife spends HER money?