| We've been together for 7 years now, we make the same dollar amount per hour, give or take a few cents difference. I am the financial enabler in this marriage, I have an emergency fund, vacation fund, retirement, home ownership... you get the picture. My credit is good, and my debt is relatively low and under control. My checking, home ownership, and retirement accounts are with a regular bank while all my other accounts are with an online bank (they let you open as many accounts as you want and the interest is pretty good). Our bills are not huge, we split the total 50/50 every month. It's not that my wife has a spending problem, she doesn't, she just has a saving and procrastination problem. See, first of all, her bank sucks, there's only like 2 branches and they're like maybe an hour away from where we live (no, we don't drive). So she depends on ATMs often, and you know those stupid fees add up at the end of the month/year. Second of all, she has it set up with her job's payroll so that they will take a portion of the paycheck and put one portion in savings and one in her checking. Problem is, the larger portion goes into savings, and this was done with very poor planning because you need to have enough in checking to assure that you won't be struggling by the end of the month in that particular account and having to take out of your savings (like she does). So for the past 3 years I have ben trying to get her to follow my footsteps by 1) Changing her bank to one that is *branched out* more like mine, it doesn't have to be the same as me, it can be Chase, Citibank, or whatever, as long as its not "One-Every-50-Miles" Bank... and 2) Set up the savings accounts like how I have mine, she doesn't have to save as much as I am, but as long as she's saving something, it will work out in the end (I've done the math homework). Another thing is she has to call her bank up to check how much she has in it. WTF is that!? Don't get me wrong, they have online banking (God bless it!) but she lost her login credentials and has to call the bank up to get new ones but she never does it so it stays the way it is. This is ridiculous. She's always complaining about money and why do people have to go to work, why can't she just be born rich, etc. I told her that's life, it sucks, but we can do something about it and I have a plan that will assure both of us will be financially comfortable and stress-free but you have to follow my lead and walk the walk. She says yeah yeah I know, but she doesn't want to do the work. She keeps saying she'll change her bank, etc. for the last ***3 years*** We're planning to go on this vacation next year and she's so excited, but I just started saving for that a few months ago so there's not a huge amount yet. I told her she has to do X,Y,Z in order for us to have enough for the vacation come next year she says yes yes i know i know don't worry I'll do it. Well, wait til the time comes, no vacation I guess. I don't know what else to do. Everything else in the marriage is fine. Any advice? | |||
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