Relationships and Finances, Reader Submission: Nicole's Story
Posted on November 15, 2006 by Him and tagged finances, relationship
When we announced our first call for entries a few months ago, Nicole sent in her story of how she and her husband deal with finances:
For the first year of our marriage my husband handled everything. I didn't even know where our checks were or have a debit card. I just charged things and he paid the bills. Then I gradually realized we weren't saving any money and had serious debt. After a HUGE fight and lots of little ones and many serious talks, he conceded that he hated dealing with money (and so had been purposefully neglecting it) and that I was actually pretty good at it (I do it at work). So I've been managing our money ever since, and he's been great. We both stopped spending money like water, and I've increased our net worth from the negative to $50k in two years. Everything is joint, but he doesn't keep track of anything. I monitor all of our investments and accounts. He has a debit card but rarely uses it and only writes one check a week (to the babysitter). We both charge pretty much everything (to get the rewards and to keep track of purchases) but pay the cards off as soon as the bill arrives). Otherwise, I handle everything. He doesn't even like to look at our net worth spreadsheet much less pick stocks. As long as we can afford to go out to dinner once every few weeks, he's a happy camper and doesn't care what I do with the money. And we're both much happier this way.
Thanks Nicole!
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Same here Aimee, my wife doesn't care either.
I'll say it again, it's all about communication :)
"Honey, I think handling money is the suck."
"Okay, I'll do it."
"Cool."
(insert language about teaching financial basics to spouse)
Aimee | Nov 16, 2006
We work the same way, only I have handled it from the start. My husband doesn't even buy anything, even though he has a card. He would rather me take care of it all and not have to do anything other than earn the money. :) It works well for us!
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