What If no-one pays the bills?

Who pays the bills?

If you don’t have a plan for who pays the bills in your family, then it’s right to assume that no-one does and bills get missed, or both do and bills are overpaid.

Generally I find that one person is more in control of the household finances than the other.

Or each person is responsible for a certain set of bills.

If you have joint living expenses, do you have a joint bank account so that all of these bills are paid from the same account, or do you have your own accounts that you are responsible for and make your own payments with?

And who is responsible for making sure you get the best deals on bills? That you are getting you best telephone prices, and insurance deals?

What if the bills aren't paid?

There are lots of ways to recover from short term debts racking up.  You can enter a payment arrangement with the people you owe money to.  You can communicate with them and arrange to pay a certain amount each pay.

For debts that are on assets, you might want to consider downsizing (selling and buying something cheaper) so that you don't have such large payments, or can be free of the debt completely.

Who makes the decisions?

Some people get stuck making a decision to sell an investment property because it is costing way more than the rent coming in, and they will make a loss when they sell - never getting back all of the money that was paid for the property.  Please do your sums because holding on to a property that costs you $200 out of the pocket each week is costing you $10,400 per year to stress you out.  One option is to cut your losses and get that $10,400 back in your pocket.

Not making a decision to keep or sell, but to just keep riding the costs is more detrimental than making a plan and acting on it.  

This stuff is important, so please have a chat to your partner and figure out who does what.  One person might be great at asking for discounts, or better deals, while the other person is great at keeping track of what is coming and going.  Find your strengths and work together to make sure your finances are handled as a team.