- Jun 12, 2014
- 9,613
- 25,544
Founding Member
So it always interesting listening to coworkers and friends discuss money issues.
"My wife has to buy groceries this week as I bought them last week."
"The car payment will come out of my husband's checking account this month."
"My wife has to pay the kids daycare."
etc, etc.
It seems like the majority keep sorta-separate finances. I certainly dont. All money goes into one pot, all money comes out of one pot. Although I handle all the finances, she is always in the loop and knows where we are.
How about you guys?
I have a one week old story regarding this. Thankfully, this isnt me but a dear friend.
1) The wife gets a side consulting gig in 2018. She does a handful of assignments and makes a cool $30,000 on the side of her normal 9-5 job which also pays pretty decent. As I have done some stuff on the side, I warn them to save a portion of that money for their new self employment tax liability. Which they didnt.
2) To make it worse, and without consulting her husband, she reduced her withholdings on her normal 9-5 paycheck. Simply because: oh cool, my paycheck is bigger.
3) To make it even worse, and without consulting her husband, she took an early withdrawal out of her 401k because their oldest kid is in college and she needed some help. She knew about the 10% penalty.... didnt know about the tax bill that was cometh.
Bottom line, they now have a fresh $16,000 federal tax bill.
They both have separate checking and savings accounts. I just cant wrap my head around that whole situation.
"My wife has to buy groceries this week as I bought them last week."
"The car payment will come out of my husband's checking account this month."
"My wife has to pay the kids daycare."
etc, etc.
It seems like the majority keep sorta-separate finances. I certainly dont. All money goes into one pot, all money comes out of one pot. Although I handle all the finances, she is always in the loop and knows where we are.
How about you guys?
I have a one week old story regarding this. Thankfully, this isnt me but a dear friend.
1) The wife gets a side consulting gig in 2018. She does a handful of assignments and makes a cool $30,000 on the side of her normal 9-5 job which also pays pretty decent. As I have done some stuff on the side, I warn them to save a portion of that money for their new self employment tax liability. Which they didnt.
2) To make it worse, and without consulting her husband, she reduced her withholdings on her normal 9-5 paycheck. Simply because: oh cool, my paycheck is bigger.
3) To make it even worse, and without consulting her husband, she took an early withdrawal out of her 401k because their oldest kid is in college and she needed some help. She knew about the 10% penalty.... didnt know about the tax bill that was cometh.
Bottom line, they now have a fresh $16,000 federal tax bill.
They both have separate checking and savings accounts. I just cant wrap my head around that whole situation.
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