Discussion key when it comes to cash

Q Do you think it's important to discuss how much you earn with your partner? What if one person earns more than the other? How should they split the bills?

Unsure

A The most important factor in a romantic partnership involving separate/differing incomes is discussion.

Keep discussing until you reach an equitable decision ... i.e., even if the incomes and distribution of them cover different expenses.

An example: The higher earner may pay more toward the mortgage than the lower earner. Or the one with a better insurance and pension plan, might pay more to monthly costs for a shared car. These divisions, however, must take into account whether one person already owned the house in which both live, and feels that rent paid by the other, is a fair solution. Of course, that only works if both agree. It may all seem very complex at the early stage of a partnership, but stay aware of this reality: What's truly fair or unfair is eminently recognizable. Work from that principle.

Reader's Commentary: The story of the sister kept from her dying mother resonated with me (Big Bad Sister).

“Because I wanted no regrets, I maintained a relationship with an alcoholic father who had been abusive to me. I considered my sister my best friend.

“However, she distanced from me and didn't inform me of her husband's memorial service.

I'd been his sister-in-law for 42 years. I wasn't invited. The exclusion was very hurtful.

“Previously, she'd had our father sell the family home and move to where she lived. She stopped speaking to me, using my hurt/angry email to my father about exclusion from the memorial service as an excuse.

“After his death, my oldest son had DNA testing done and informed me that she wasn't my father's daughter.

“I had my DNA done and she was not my father's child. She was terrified I'd tell him, but I wasn't going to judge my mother and ruin an old man's memories of her.

“Two weeks before he died, she had him change his will. He went for hospital tests and then I couldn't find him.

The hospital would tell me nothing because she'd had herself and daughter listed as the only “family.”

“I discovered that he'd died. She hadn't let me say goodbye.

“I learned he left me $25,000 and she and her daughters got the rest of the considerable state. They paid all the legal fees out of the account including my pittance and my final inheritance was just more than $1,800.

“There was nothing to be done about it because he was of sound mind.