You are absolutely right that the spouse who is best with finances should handle it. In our house, it’s my husband. I have one sister who handles all of the money questions and pays the bills. They agreed on this early in their marriage and it has worked out well for them. I have another sister whose finances cause her great stress. Sister #2 and her husband have never come up with a strategy, so that he spends money on something without consulting her and she does likewise. And she keeps saying that she can’t afford to retire, although she is pushing 70.
“... she is pushing 70”.
I am a firm believer that each spouse has something good to bring to the table but yes... in some cases, both are not great with money. To me, that is bad, bad, bad. My youngest brother, for instance, said his “I do’s” without knowing his brand new wife’s money issues. He was informed (on his honeymoon) that she still owed twenty grand for student loans and fifteen grand on her car. I won’t even get into the Visa bill! He called me to vent and I said “welcome to marriage. The wedding ceremony is OVER and now it is time for the two of you to sit down, rationally (no fighting or arguing) and come up with a good budget that can be done without either of you starving”. Fortunately, they did and have started out relatively on the same page with a plan in motion.