I like Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, together and separately. What can I say, they’re a hot couple! I don’t know that I would go so far as to call them couple goals, but definitely parent goals and fashion goals. But how about finance goals? Gabrielle made headlines this week after appearing on the Black Millionaires podcast and revealing that they split their household bills 50/50. Surprising?
This power couple splits their bills!
In a clip going viral online from the Black Millionaires podcast, actress Gabrielle Union said she and her husband, retired NBA star Dwyane Wade, split their finances evenly.
“In this household, we split everything fifty-fifty,” she told the show’s host.
The actress, 50, continued, “But in the other households that each of us have to support, there’s always this like, gorilla on your back, that’s like, ‘You better work, b—, you better work. Oh, you’re going to sleep in?’ You know, somebody might not eat.”
She added, “It’s hard. It’s hard to let that go. So I’m working on that.”
Union explained that she still has a “scarcity mindset” with her money from when she was trying to make it in Hollywood.
“I struggle with that, still,” she said. “I think I just have more responsibilities for my money. I get nervous like, ‘Oh God, that movie didn’t open you know what does that mean? Do I – Am I … Am I going to have enough to hold everybody up?’ ”
The former NBA star, 41, retired from the league in 2019 after earning approximately $200 million during his tenure with the Miami Heat, according to Outkick.
So, what Gabrielle is saying is they split their household expenses equally, but both of them have other households — I’m assuming family — that they are also supporting. That’s a lot of responsibility, but such is like when you’re a millionaire, I suppose. It makes sense that they would each be responsible for their own families, but I was a little surprised that they split their household bills in half. Reportedly, Gabrielle has a net worth of $40 million and Dwyane has a net worth of $170 million. I am single and only support myself and a very high maintenance cat, so maybe my opinion doesn’t matter here. But I do think if one partner earns dramatically more, they should contribute more to the household. Like they should each contribute proportionally to their income. But hey, this is clearly working for them.
Gabrielle Union says her and Dwade split their bills 50/50 and she still has anxiety about being financially secure due to all of her responsibilities which forces her to be a workaholic! “You better work b*tch, oh you want to sleep in.” pic.twitter.com/lrvhZ3Ax8Q
— Black Millionaires ® (@Blackmillions_) May 15, 2023
photos via Instagram/Gabrielle Union and credit: Jeffrey Mayer / Avalon
In her first book she talked about this, but it was a little simpler because they had two houses – she had a place in LA for work, and they had their family house in Miami for his work. So that house had something like a 30 million dollar kitchen (okay thats an exaggeration but you get my point lol). And then people would go to her place in LA and be like, “um, this is different” and her response was “the house in Miami is NBA money, this is TV money.” So he paid for the Miami house and she paid for the LA house.
Now that they live together full time in LA with their family, I guess they just kept up with that? I wonder if they dumped the money from their Miami mansion into their new LA place so their mortgage is very low or something?
My husband and I split everything 50/50, I guess – the money just all goes into the same pot. But we make about the same. The couples I know who split finances and who do it successfully without issues split everything according to income – so if one person makes 200k/year and one person makes 100k, so their total is 300k, the person with the 200k pays 2/3 of the expenses since they make 2/3 of the money.
But this clearly seems to work for them so good for them. I think the biggest issue in general is when couples don’t talk about this upfront and then as an ongoing discussion. What might have worked 10 years ago might not work today etc.
Don’t know why this is an issue, if itworks for them.
I see it more as a surprise to hear than seeing the arrangement as a problem
With bank accounts that large it would only make sense to keep things as separate as possible.
The internet went crazy about this and compared her to unfavorably to Savannah James but I don’t see a problem. If it works for them then okay. It’s not like she’s telling us this is what we should do.
Every couple and household is different.
In my household we put everything into one pot then have a savings. We each also take a percentage for play money.
My husband and I split 50/50 for everything. I wanted it this way from the start. This makes us EQUALS. This also means I get to spend my money as I please. My husband is frugal. If all of our money was together I would not have jewelry, art and expensive clothes. Yes, I can afford them, but he would never have understood my spending. So, 50/50!!! PS. I have a pension/SS as well as savings. He only has his savings.
Her husband is 4 times wealthier than she is. It makes absolutely no sense that she pays 50 percent of expenses when your husband and his 3??? children from his previous marriage leave full time with you.
This is the worst roomates’ accomodation I have ever seen . Let’s not even discuss the free labor put into their households… that alone would deter me from going 50/50 with anyone. Might as well stay single.
I would love to know which other NBA wife has this kind of “agreement” with her husband.
Yeah, I had a very uncomfortable lunch with a group of married/ cohabiting friends when we were discussing household splits and only one was splitting 50/50 (with her partner that earned at least 3x as much) while the rest had the more sensible relative contribution arrangements (i.e. we are each contributing 50% of our income into joint savings and 20% into mortgage repayments, rather than equal dollar value contributions).
Only one of their partners contributed to her 401k while she was a SAHM though, that should also be way more normalised.
In general, I agree with you, but when both parties have far more money than they need to support a household, then I think it’s fine? She can afford to make a point. I’m also curious about whether it’s all household expenses, or if Wade takes on 100% for the kids who aren’t biologically Gabrielle’s.
She says they split their household expenses 50/50 not everything. I’m sure he carries the expenses for the children he has that aren’t hers. They both have extended family that they support and it wouldn’t be fair to have him carry her family or vice versa. Also I know he tithes but I’m not sure if she does. There are a lot of reasons they find this arrangement works for them.
He sounds cheap. If you have NBA money why are you splitting 50/50 and making her stress out about money
I guess each couple has to find what works for them and what makes them comfortable. I’ve been married for 28 years and I can say that our situation has changed along with the circumstances that life presented. There have been times when only one of us was working and the other person had to carry the household, and times when we both brought in good income. You just have to roll with the punches. When my oldest child was born the company I worked for did not have paid maternity leave, so I had to go straight back to work after 8 weeks because we really needed the money. When my youngest was born, I was able to stay home with her for three years because we were in a totally different place financially.
I think you also have to factor in the ‘scarcity mindset’ that Gabrielle talks about. If one partner feels that way and the other doesn’t, it can cause emotional havoc in the relationship.
When both partners have something separate of their own they can each spend, without oversight from the other person, it can alleviate a lot of tension and prevent a lot of arguments.
Many years ago a good friend told me the key to a happy marriage was compromise. He said it wouldn’t always be 50/50. Some days it can be 70/30 your way and other days it can be 80/20 their way, as long as you’re both willing to work any situation out together.
Doesn’t sound fair given their differences in net worth. I come from a similar “scarcity mindset” where i felt responsible for my family. When I was in my twenties, I had a similar attitude of “I will pay my way” with boyfriends, who were my age and made similar amounts of money. After marrying and deciding to be a stay at home mother, it has been a constant struggle in my mind, to allow my husband to be the one responsible for our expenses. I find it so hard to value my own contribution of labour to our household because of the “gotta earn” mindset. What I am trying to say is, I relate to Gabrielle thinking this is her way of staying in control, but I hope she doesn’t literally mean 50-50 and it’s a more equitable split, relative to their respective incomes.
I’m not anywhere near to having a mate but it really hit home where Gabrielle was saying, Oh you want to sleep in? I know that conversation! I’ve worked too much to be taken seriously and I STILL get called a little girl. I don’t sleep in either.
And I like being responsible for myself. I like hearing other women are doing that too. A few days ago when Chase Sui was saying It’s like another person came into the video game… it was a good description. We each make our way in our own adventure, advancing at our own pace, playing on our own terms, we have people along for part of it. We make individual progress and save our own game. I really liked that metaphor
Nothing shocking here. My partner and I split the household bills 50/50 for over 20 years. We’ve heard many others do the same. If you both live within your means and generate household bills you can both financially afford with your 50% contribution, what’s the problem?
Another factor that makes it work for everyone is coming to a consensus on a shared definition of “household” bills, because it can mean different things to different people.
I also split bills 50/50 with my husband cuz we make around the same income but when one spouse makes 5xs as much then it makes that spouse look cheap and mean.
So my take on this is that there is no way her salary can compete with his, so she probably contributes enough where it feels equal for them, but I am most certain he’s covering the super extravagant stuff.
The 50/50 claim comes from a video interview so there is no doubt as to what she meant. She was very clear and said 50/50 for everything!!!
If it is working for them and she if fine with it why do you have such a problem with it?
If you don’t like it don’t have that type of agreement in your relationship.
They could be splitting the bills 50/50 relative to their respective incomes (and still call it 50/50)
I don’t see anything wrong with this, either. They are all family.
What works for them is their business, and if they are happy, then it’s none of mine. But for me, and my marriage, this wouldn’t work. We started out “young and dumb” (not really, late 20’s for me and early 30’s for him, and were building successful careers) and just put everything in the same pot. We bought our first house before we got married and both names were on the mortgage and the deed. Same with the house we’re in now. All of the bills/shared expenses get paid out of our joint account. He makes about 5 times what I do, but I do a lot more of the homekeeping (in addition to carrying our health/dental insurance, as I work for a giant company and he is self-employed.) There were years when the kids were little and we lived on a tight budget together. Now we are fortunate to be able to live very comfortably, and we enjoy that together. It works for us. It might not work for everyone!
It’s super hard to know how to feel about this without knowing more about what they consider household expenses. They’ve probably paid cash for real estate, so she might only be talking about basic utilities and household help. Or it could include all of that + groceries + furnishings + all of the other things a household requires for everyone who lives in it. If it’s the later, that seems pretty unfair given his earnings, but the former seems fine?