Quiz: The 5 Ways Married Couples Organize Their Money

It’s easy to make fun of social science research when the results seem like obvious common sense. The following info is from a survey done in 2002 in the UK. Let me know if you think these results are obvious or not.

Basically, married couples tend to use five different money systems:

1. He gives her his paycheck and she manages the money, giving him an allowance to spend.
2. He manages the money, giving her an allowance for both household and personal spending.
3. The money is completely separate. Each manages his or her own independently.
4. There’s a partial pool, where there may be a joint household fund but the rest is left to each to manage.
5. The joint system where all the money is pooled and jointly managed.

Answer the following questions; if you can answer all correctly, you will win a free 30 minute consultation with me on any money issue (LearnVest workers excluded)!

  • Which systems do you think are related to higher levels of happiness and/or dissatisfaction with family life? For the man? For the woman?
  • Which systems do you think are seen as the man having an advantage?
  • Which system do you think is related to the couples who have more money to manage? The least amount of money to manage?

Enter your answers in the comments section below! The answers will be publicly available in a future post—and one lucky person who gets everything right will win a free psychology of money consultation with me.

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  • Sam

    What about if a woman is the breadwinner?

    • http://doctorgresham.com Dr. Mary Gresham

      Often if the women is the breadwinner she tends to give her man the money to manage….

  • Shawn12

    Ha! Im envisioning how my husband would blow his allowance.

  • Ann

    Beer?

  • Ann

    Right. I’d like to imagine my husband would blow it on gifts for me….

  • Shawn12

    Bourbon and cigars. Same idea

  • Anniecroakley

    Agreed, I think whoever did this survey has something wrong with them.

  • SimpleeStated

    Can debt count as an alloweance?n

  • QueenBEA

    Dr. Greshem Do you agree with this?

    • http://doctorgresham.com Dr. Mary Gresham

      The survey shows what seems to be true….women tend to manage the money if there is not very much..men tend to manage the money if there is a lot….the unhappiest system for both men and women is the man managing and giving the allowance..the happiest for both men and women is the pooled money…

  • Ihatequizzes

    Which systems do you think are related to higher levels of happiness and/or dissatisfaction with family life? For the man? For the woman?n–Getting an allowancenWhich systems do you think are seen as the man having an advantage?n–Giving an allowancenWhich system do you think is related to the couples who have more money to manage? The least amount of money to manage?n–more: separate pools. –less: jointn

  • alysse

    There are no “correct” answers to these questions because a system that makes one couple happy may be miserable for another couple. It all depends on the person. rnrnu2022Which systems do you think are related to higher levels of happiness and/or dissatisfaction with family life? For the man? For the woman?rnIn my opinion the last option, jointly managed finances, would correlate with the highest levels of satisfaction because both partners are equal in the process and there are no power struggles, secrecy, or resentment on either side. rnu2022Which systems do you think are seen as the man having an advantage?rnMen who manage all the money and give an allowance have an advantage.rnu2022Which system do you think is related to the couples who have more money to manage? The least amount of money to manage?rnSystems where all the money is pooled and one partner manages all of it would be associated with the least money. More money requires more decisions and couples with higher incomes are more likely to jointly manage their money.

    • http://doctorgresham.com Dr. Mary Gresham

      You made some great guesses….everything but the pooled is seen as the man having the advantage…the most wealthy couples have the man as the manager…the less well-off then to have the women manage..(except in Japan)