Recently, Mr Budget came across a discussion thread on Facebook which piqued my interest. 

The question goes: 

Does it matter if you’re the girl and your starting salary is already $1000 more than what your partner is drawing and he’s been working for a year already since he graduated from uni? Would it be a potential issue in future where you’ll start to draw a lot more than he does?

As much as I am not a lady, I understand why the person would feel that way, after all, who doesn’t want to have the sense of security provided by her husband. This is also especially true in a society heavily influenced by Chinese beliefs and culture, where money often equates to security.

So where do we stand on that?

First of all, we don’t think that it will be much of an issue if a guy earns less than the girl.

Everyone has a different starting point in their career. What is perhaps more important is that – does the guy have a high future earning potential given his current career path? Assuming the guy earns lesser than the girl at the start of their career, it is not certain whether the guy won’t be able to catch up with the pay.

When Mr Budget started out with his career, his first job only paid him S$2,200 a month in the private sector. Mrs Budget on the other hand, started off working in the government and has way higher starting pay. Slowly, Mr Budget manage to close the gap in terms of income and is now earning almost as much as Mrs Budget – a slow but steady catch up.

Another equally important point is also on money management. While the girl may be earning more, she might be spending more on items such as entertainment, dining out, cosmetics, or shopping, and end up with a very high expenses. On the other hand, the guy who might be earning lesser, may end up saving more and have a higher savings rate. 

The red flag for any girls should be if the partner is lazy and unmotivated at work (low future earning potential), and is uninterested in managing his personal finance – this shows that he don’t have a strong outlook in life and is quite irresponsible. In this case, this will definitely be a potential issue in any relationships.

At the end of the day, both the couple needs to be open with one another in terms of their finances.

I think having open communications will give a lot of security to the lady in any relationship, and shows that both parties have full trust on each other. Besides, a relationship is more than just the money.

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