Don't Let Inconsistent Income Derail Your Finances — or Your Relationship
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
No relationship is perfectly equal. One person is always going to make more or do more around the house or be the cat's favorite human. But what happens when these differences become a crisis? Welcome to NerdWallet's Smart Money Podcast, where you send us your money questions and we answer them with the help of our genius nerds. I'm Sean Piles.
And I'm Elizabeth Ayola. Now, today we're going to be answering a listener's question about what to do when your partner has inconsistent income and you don't. So here's the question. Hi, nerds. Can you speak on how to handle the situation where your spouse's income is very small and inconsistent? How should I plan my budget for this? I'm struggling to pay our bills and also have a little spending money because I don't know how much he'll make in each given week. Thank you, PA girl. This is such a tough situation and one I have been in before.
Well, I can't wait to hear your experience of it. And there's so much going on in this question, but I can kind of break it out into two main categories. One is kind of the nuts and bolts financial side, like what's just happening with their money and their budget on a day-to-day basis. But then there is the huge, complicated, maybe less straightforward emotional and relationship aspect of how do you have a fair relationship? How do you each pull your own weight? How do you not make it so that you are your boyfriend's mom, which happens sometimes. So let's get into it, starting with the financial stuff.
Let's jump into the very basics. Even if you have an inconsistent budget, you still got bills, right? Which means you need to know how much your expenses are. And that is where the 50-30-20 budget comes in. So it tells you 50% goes to needs, 30% goes to wants, and 20% to debt. and savings. So in the PA girl scenario, they want to know what their bare bones budget is. So that's your basic essentials, no fun money stuff. You want to calculate what that is first and foremost. That can include housing, groceries, medication and the likes.
I really want to emphasize the importance of that bare bones budget where it's just the essentials because it seems like they don't have a lot of flexibility in their income and in their spending. I also want to hear more from PA girl, although we don't have a lot of information from them about how much their partners bring in on a regular basis. I would really encourage them to go back through the past maybe three months of their partner's income and see what the minimum and maximum amount is. And budget based on that minimum amount, just to be conservative here, that will help you understand how much they can contribute to whatever PA girl is also adding into their finances. Because it seems like things are really tight right now.
They just need to get super clear on their numbers.
And that can be so frustrating when you don't have enough income coming in and you're the one footing the bills. But one thing that PA girl should also do once they're able to calculate that bare bones budget is add their partner's income into that regular income. And the partner's income is based like on what you said, Sean, the past three months, or if you can even go further back to see how much they have coming in. So that will help you, PA Girl, to answer your question about how you can plan your budget.
I also would like to see them get a little bit more breathing room in their finances. And the best way to do that is just to increase your income. A lot easier said than done, we know. But I'm hoping that PA Girl can talk with their partner and say, hey, What opportunities do you have to bring in a little more on a more consistent basis? Because it's hard when someone isn't bringing in a lot to begin with, and then what they are bringing in isn't super steady. It makes it super hard to plan as they know well, because it seems like there's a lot of stress underlying this question too. And a little more predictability, a little more income would just help alleviate some of the stress.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–6:29
2
How do you calculate a bare‑bones budget when a partner's income is inconsistent?
6:29–9:47
3
What methods can you use to estimate unpredictable partner income reliably?
9:47–19:45
4
How can you build emergency savings and trim expenses when income fluctuates?
19:45–27:48
5
Should you keep joint or separate accounts when your partner's earnings are unstable?
27:48–29:56
Speakers
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