I see the way the human nature (for most people) transition over time in 3 big steps, from single to married life to having extended little minions in the family members.
As I am close to the end of having our own personal honeymoon world in these past 9 months of marriage, I would like to share on the difference between leading a single to married life before moving on to having little Bs bugging for daddy :)
Savings
Savings percentage is probably one of the major difference financially between leading a single or married life.
When I was single (until 9 months ago), I used to save home a huge percentages of my active income every month. If you see some of the expenses posts I've made in the past years, my savings rate usually goes as high as 80% to 90% each month. I rarely spent on anything major for myself except a couple of good food here and there, but my passive income usually takes care for it.
As expenses start to go up in my married life together with my spouse, savings rate naturally goes the opposite way. Based on the expenses we recorded in the past 9 months, I am still proud to say that we've kept the discipline and momentum going. My savings rate are these days down to about 50% but that is still a respectable figure after seeing articles of so many people who is earning so much but yet save so little.
Power-Play
Power play often plays a big part in a couple's marriage. This concept means that if one is earning more than the other, then he or she should contribute to the expenses ans savings more than the other.
For us, we like to keep it simple and not being too calculative about money. As long as both of us keep our expenses well in check and be honest with one another, I do not mind contributing to the expenses.
I usually allow for my wife's money that she earned to be spent on her desire consumer goods. So if she wants to buy groceries, we can use our money but if she wants a $5k bag, then she needs to earn that money first herself.
Common Goal
You can probably see that our two person's honeymoon world is not the longest in the world. 9 months is all we have and boom our little baby is here.
For this to happen, I often talked to her about budgeting the right amount if we are going to have kids in the future. The cost of living and raising kids in Singapore are probably not the cheapest and I think to be cautious we will probably need $700k to raise for one single child until graduation. If we want 3 children, then we multiply that figure by 3, which is getting ready for the future expenses that we are going to incur. It's think before action, just what everyone needs.
How is married life for you? Does discipline between couples matters the most?
