"'My Money Is My Money'... Young Couples Pool Only Living Expenses: 'Full Sharing Feels Unsettling'"

Sharing Living Expenses While Managing Assets Separately
Growing Tendency to Pursue Shared Financial Goals

More young couples are choosing to share living expenses after marriage while managing their personal assets separately.

According to the report “Married Life Built Together,” released by the Hana Financial Research Institute on November 15, 25% of married households aged 20 to 34 said they jointly manage only some of their finances, such as living expenses. This was the highest share of any age group and more than twice the 10.7% recorded among married households aged 55 to 69.

Among those aged 20 to 34, 59.3% agreed that spouses should be transparent with each other about their assets, below the average of 65.0%. The share who said they felt anxious as combining assets with their spouse reduced their personal autonomy stood at 42.3%, well above the overall average of 33.9%.

Nevertheless, 47.6% of those aged 20 to 34 viewed marriage as a way to grow their assets quickly. This was a higher share than in any other age group. In practice, 48% said they held financial products jointly managed with their spouse, and 64% said they intended to sign up for or add new joint financial products in the future.

Among people in their 20s and 30s, there is a clear tendency to pursue shared financial goals as a couple while placing importance on independence and autonomy over personal assets.

Financial attitudes also emerged as an important factor in choosing a spouse. For Generation Z (those born between 1996 and 2006), the most important qualities in a spouse were “personality” (74.9%), followed by “financial habits and management skills” (72.7%). By contrast, “current income level” (64.5%) ranked sixth. This suggests that long-term asset management skills are considered more important in choosing a spouse than immediate income.

Analysts attribute this trend to the expansion of dual-income households as more women participate in the workforce. According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics, 59.7% of newlywed couples marrying for the first time in 2024 were dual-income households, up 1.5 percentage points from the previous year. The share was 64.2% among couples in their first year of marriage. The employment rate for women in their 30s also rose by 16.2 percentage points, from 56.9% in 2015 to 73.1% last year.

The Hana Financial Research Institute said, “As women’s participation in economic activity has increased and spouses have come to contribute equally to household income, couples are increasingly managing funds for shared goals separately from their individual investment and spending money.” It added, “There is a need to expand savings and investment products and services that allow couples to achieve shared financial goals while managing their personal assets independently.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.