I would not marry him until he paid the debt, now I am in charge of our money

When Sarah Reeve got engaged, she gave her fiance Lee an ultimatum: he had to pay off the debt before she could marry him.

“He was giving his mom some rent and I was paying my mortgage and bills,” Sarah says of their relationship in their early 20s.

“I told him I wouldn’t marry him if he was in debt,” says the 45-year-old.

So Lee gave them time to pay off the £2,000 bank loan – £4,000 – and put off the wedding date for two years. In today’s money, External – He went out to buy a car.

Once Lee’s debt was cleared, the couple paid everything into a joint account and Sarah handled the bills, savings and budgeting.

“She said, ‘I’m rubbish at it so you can take it all apart and be financially responsible,'” she says.

Sarah’s experience shows that more than four-fifths of women are actively involved in managing day-to-day finances, such as day-to-day expenses and household budgets, according to the St. James’s Place Women and Wealth Report.

Sarah earns £24,000 working part-time in Insurance and Lee. They worked in maintenance at the same factory for 27 years, earning around £26,000, before being made redundant four years ago.

He now works for himself in property maintenance and earns around £30,000.

The couple, who have been together for 25 years and have two daughters, ages 19 and 21, have always thought of money as something they share.

“Our money is better than mine or yours, especially since I took four years off work when we had the kids,” Sarah says.