Different Pay, Shared Plans book cover
In development

Different Pay, Shared Plans

A Couples’ Guide to Expense Splits, Personal Autonomy, and a Written Money Agreement

By Evan Calder and Daniel H. Mercer

Make shared expenses, contributions, settlements, and review points explicit.

Make shared expenses, contributions, settlements, and review points explicit while respecting the fact that incomes differ.

For partners combining some—not necessarily all—of their financial lives, especially when income, existing obligations, available cash, or ideas of fairness differ.

Decisions this project is designed to support

Choose what is shared

Distinguish household expenses from individual obligations and name the decisions that truly require coordination.

Compare ways to contribute

Test equal, proportional, and other agreed approaches by looking at both the shared total and what each person has left.

Make the settlement visible

Track who paid, what was intended, what remains to be reconciled, and when that reconciliation happens.

Write the agreement and return date

Record responsibilities, boundaries, exceptions, and a review date so the system can change without relying on memory.

Companion resources

Available · Version 1.0

Shared-Expense Split Simulator

Compare sharing methods and what each method leaves for each partner.

Available · Version 1.1

Household Contributions & Settlement Tracker

Reconcile household contributions and payments without turning memory into the ledger.

Available · Version 1.0

Household Money Agreement

Write the couple’s choices, responsibilities, boundaries, and next review date.

In development: This book is in development. Its title, subtitle, authors, and cover identify this edition; no Kindle listing, price, or release date is being announced. Three companion tools are available now.

What this work cannot decide

No worksheet can define fairness, resolve coercion, combine legal ownership, or substitute for legal, tax, financial, or safety guidance. The work depends on informed and voluntary decisions by both people.