Coupling up: how to avoid money worries in your relationship

Start – and keep – talking

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer for whether you should manage your finances jointly, separately or somewhere in the middle.

The most important thing is to have conversations about money – things such as spending, budgeting, debt and saving – early on in your relationship to prevent misunderstandings and arguments later.

According to the counselling service Relate , worries around finance are the biggest strain on couples across the UK, yet, it says, surveys have shown that “a large proportion of us feel unable to actually talk about money with our partners”.

If you are struggling to get a conversation going, you could draw up a written plan. You could suggest you each separately write down how you think you should manage your finances as a couple, and t