{"id":874981,"date":"2026-10-08T09:38:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/874981\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T09:38:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T09:38:08","slug":"splits-are-the-new-financial-power-couple-two-incomes-no-kids-yet-and-no-joint-bank-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/874981\/","title":{"rendered":"SPLITs are the new financial power couple\u2014two incomes, no kids yet and no joint bank account"},"content":{"rendered":"

DINKs<\/a> have been having a moment. Child-free millennials have spent the last few years flaunting champagne breakfasts and last-minute luxury trips<\/a> on TikTok, all funded by the money they\u2019re not spending on nappies.<\/p>\n

But a new financial power couple has arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor decades, the average American couple sat down at the kitchen table to combine finances after arriving home from their honeymoon,\u201d Shruti Joshi, president and chief operating officer of the financial planning company Facet, tells Fortune. Not anymore.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, the company has taken stock of a new breed of couples, who don\u2019t share a bank account or a household pot of money\u2014and it\u2019s become so common, they\u2019ve even been given a name: SPLITs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re partners who keep their finances separate while sharing one plan for the future, and Joshi says they make up a growing share of the households Facet works with.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur planners are used to working with couples who each hold their own savings accounts, debts and 401(K)s, while sharing a plan that ties it all together,\u201d Joshi adds. \u201cWe saw this pattern so frequently, we knew it deserved a name of its own.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Why more couples are keeping their finances separate<\/p>\n

One big shift is behind the trend: the stigma has gone. \u201cA generation ago, keeping your own account looked like betting against your relationship,\u201d Joshi says. \u201cToday, it\u2019s seen as a sign of maturity and people are much more open to talking about finances than a generation ago.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

People are settling down later and entering relationships with savings, investments and retirement plans that took years, even decades, to build. \u201cThey don\u2019t want to take those apart to merge with a partner. And they shouldn\u2019t have to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore women also now have serious earning power, and when both partners have careers and comparable incomes, there\u2019s less reason to funnel everything through one shared account.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up amid high divorce rates has also made younger couples more conscious of protecting their financial independence. Plus, merging everything into one pot can be messy; One partner may be paying off student loans while the other is debt-free with a pristine credit history.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s why SPLITs reap the same benefits as DINKs\u2014two incomes working just for them\u2014but without pulling every penny into one account, each partner can spend, save and splurge on their own terms.<\/p>\n

Meet the new power couple\u2014but there\u2019s a catch<\/p>\n

DINKs have long been the couple to envy on paper, with a median household income of $193,900<\/a>, compared with $151,900 for dual-income couples with kids, per Pew Research Center. They do have less wealth overall, at $214,700 against $361,500, mostly because they\u2019re younger and less likely to own a home. But they\u2019re also skipping the sky-high cost<\/a> of having kids.<\/p>\n

Couples with children carry about $70,000 more in debt, per the Federal Reserve\u2019s 2022 data<\/a>. And then there\u2019s the price tag of the bigger house and the four-by-four.<\/p>\n

When you factor in loans, credit cards, and mortgages, child-free couples were around $100,000 in debt, but that rose to $168,000 for couples with kids.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SPLITs have the same setup: two incomes and, for now, no childcare bills. The power comes from how they manage their money.<\/p>\n

They can still pool money for big goals like buying a home or traveling the world. But financial autonomy means they don\u2019t need to justify splurging on themselves. \u201cThey\u2019re less likely to feel the need to hide a pricey new jacket or justify a weekend trip with friends,\u201d Joshi adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re also building their own credit and retirement savings, and protecting their wealth should things turn sour.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the setup only works with regular, honest conversations about who pays for what. And that in itself is the superpower, with Joshi noting it results in SPLITs talking about money more often than couples who pool everything and may avoid the topic altogether. \u201cThat dynamic keeps them on the same team, eliminating a lot of common money fights.\u201d<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s a catch. The setup is perfect for childfree renters. If you want to buy a home together or start a family, it suddenly becomes less of a flex.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe financial plan you settled on when you were happily childless and renting a townhome in the city may not be the same one you need when you decide to buy a house and have a baby,\u201d\u00a0 Joshi says, adding that mortgage providers and tax codes favor a joint account.<\/p>\n

\u201cSPLITs know their lifestyle works best for them, but they\u2019ve been dropped in the middle of a financial landscape that doesn\u2019t support couples with separated finances.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DINKs have been having a moment. Child-free millennials have spent the last few years flaunting champagne breakfasts and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":874982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,14398,152,40583,22845,6069,148,147,530,3415,1432,3643],"class_list":["post-874981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-childcare","tag-finances","tag-financial-advice","tag-millennial","tag-millennials","tag-parenting","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-savings","tag-wealth","tag-wealth-management"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=874981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/874981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/874982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=874981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=874981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=874981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}