Poll: Spouses Financial Acumen

[Midpack]

Stemming from another thread yesterday. With apologies, I guess only couples can vote on this one.

 

[rodi]

My husband has entirely delegated finances to me.
I make him sit through a lecture on where the account info is kept (hard copy) and how I track the accounts in Quicken.

Given his druthers, he'd invest 100% in cash/CDs. So I better live a good long while so he doesn't have our nest egg depleted by inflation.

 

[bbbamI]

Waaaaaay back in '07, I posted this thread needing advice...

http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f28/tips-on-getting-so-involved-in-finances-25687.html

I'm happy to say since DH has been retired for a while (and has had plenty of play time), he pays more attention to financial matters. I still keep everything current and if any changes should be made, he'll discuss it with me.

He should do just fine if I go "poof"...

I'm still trying to get him to cook more often however....

 

[73ss454]

When it comes to our finances I learn what I can and have some knowledge of what is going on. As for DW, brain dead, and doesn't want to hear about it.

 

[travelover]

I've left instructions for DW to put it all in Wellesley.

 

[JakeBrake]

I currently handle the finances in our house. I am confident DW will handle things as well as I do after a month or so of adjustment.

It's like we used to say at Megacorp. Place your finger into a bowl of water. Remove your finger and the space left in the bowl of water will be how much you're missed at Megacorp. In other words, no one is indispensable.

 

[Danmar]

We are both professional accountants but she has generally delegated to me. She asks great questions though and is fully aware of all our finances. Total self direction. What a team!

 

[Nords]

She's strategy, I'm tactics.

 

[devans0]

She will do as well or better. DW is one of the smartest people that I have ever met, and has her feet on the ground. We have very different schedules and have kept separate finances. She has a nest egg of her own and she has done some good investing over the years.

 

[Katsmeow]

I analyze everything to death and DH just...isn't that interested. So I do all the money stuff. We do talk about it and sometimes he has an opinion. I think if I wasn't here he would just have Vanguard do a financial plan and then would follow it and have done with it.

 

[sunnysideup]

DH would be just fine. Would probably make vastly different choices in the investments. Basically, we have individual and joint accounts right now, we both want to make financial decisions for our investments. The individual accounts are easy, the joint ones--well--sometimes we split the monies and invest both ways when we don't agree on the strategy......
I guess this might sound weird to some, but when we agree to disagree, this solution keeps us from futile arguments...

Our investing styles differ -- DH reads lots of technical finance and economic stuff, and believes that to some extent you can time the market. I tend to stick with my plan (AA, dollar cost averaging, and dividend reinvestment) and plod along. I am not sure who is doing better long term, but ever since I established a "plan", my plan is definitely working for me!!!


Norma

 

[grumpy]

Everything is well organized and documented in a massive spreadsheet I maintain. DW knows where to find it but when I'm gone she will take the info to a friend who is a financial planner and pay him a fee to manage everything for her.

 

[JDARNELL]

I am going to have CINC House contact Nords and pay him a consulting fee to help her.

JDARNELL

 

[Sue J]

For years I've tried to get DH involved in the money. He just wants to be hands off. His level of involvement is managing his pocket cash vs. a calendar month.

If I died suddenly he knows that his pension is direct deposited into the checking account. He logged onto the bank website once, maybe 4 or 5 years ago when we needed to update passwords.

I have a Google Documents account with all the accounts and spreadsheets. All the documents are shared to his email. He never, ever looks at any of it.

I have notes and lists in my desk and a spiral notebook with passwords. He could figure it out if he had to, he just doesn't doesn't want to have to.

 

[Brett_Cameron]

When it comes to our finances I learn what I can and have some knowledge of what is going on. As for DW, brain dead, and doesn't want to hear about it.

+1

 

[misty57]

I've taken care of all the finances since we were married. DH will be retiring soon and he's gonna get more involved then.

 

[FIREd]

When I retired, my wife gladly relinquished the last part of our finances she had been handling (paying the bills). She has never shown any interest in our financial investments. But she is intelligent and I am sure that she would do fine if I wasn't here to handle our investments anymore. I have written a pamphlet describing in detail our current financial situation (list of assets, account numbers, passwords, etc...) with guidance relative to each investment (description, purpose, tax handling, alternatives, etc...). Hopefully, it will provide a good starting point for her.

 

[traineeinvestor]

I'm happy to say that mrs traineeinvestor is financially well educated and capable of handling the finances should anything happen to me.

The only issue will be finding and accessing everything. The list of assets, account details etc is now several years old and needs updating. I'm sure I'll get around to it one of these days.

 

[Danmar]

On second thought, we approach financial matters more as a team. I pay the bills, but she tracks and allocates the CC charges. i keep the master budget spreadsheet but she keeps support spreadsheets for travel, home renos, furnishing projects,etc. I do the taxes and generally manage the portfolios but discuss any transactions with her before execution. She is intimately aware of our assets and owns most of the real estate in her name. We both log into our financial intitution every day to ensure things are happening as expected. She watches the CC clearings every day. I doubt we could be more on top of it or work more closely together. A real shared interest so to speak.

 

[Rambler]

I figure out where the money is coming from. DW decides where it is going.

Joking aside, I will need to have a plan in place and a trusted advisor, or perhaps I will need to train DD on investing/harvesting the proceeds. I've tried to get DW to be interested, but it is simply not within her suite of interests. I made a list of assets and where they are, so she knows where to get them. When we move back to the States, we will probably put a trust together, and we will spend time getting her a basic understanding of how our portfolio generates income, but I suspect she will always need help.

R

 

[panacea]

All DW has wanted to have is some reassurance that we're financially doing ok. She doesn't want to be bothered with details... doesn't care where the money is or how it's invested. If we have to spend a bunch (like on a home improvement project), she just wants to know if it will hurt us. Doesn't want to talk about insurance... life insurance discussions used to make her cry but not anymore, so I think that's progress (or maybe she's just getting tired of me ). Doesn't care to pay the bills. She is perfectly capable and my guess is that she'll take control just fine after I'm gone... but there's a pretty good chance she'll just hire someone to manage the investments.

 

[Walt34]

I'm still trying to get him to cook more often however....

Ha! Good luck with that!

As a practical matter I handle most of the details but DW is very much aware of what is where, where it came from and where it's going.

She's the one who wrote the spreadsheet we use on an almost daily basis to keep track of financials.

So if/when I get The Big Ache she'll do fine with the financial stuff.

And I told her she has to wear black for a year before running wild.

 

[grasshopper]

Ms G stays focused for about 5 minutes. Now if PetSmart had financial advisers..........

 

[Midpack]

Everything is well organized and documented in a massive spreadsheet I maintain. DW knows where to find it but when I'm gone she will take the info to a friend who is a financial planner and pay him a fee to manage everything for her.

That probably describes our situation, and I've set everything to be as automatic as I can. DW knows where everything is, but she wouldn't know what to do with it (though I'll keep trying to get her interested).

She has always handled the bank account and paid bills. And she now enters the check register in a spreadsheet that I built that tracks our spending with pivot tables that summarize spending and another showing variances from budget. She is now well aware of our budget, though we've never been at any risk of overspending. I just haven't been able to interest her in any aspect of investing, withdrawal, etc.

 

[brewer12345]

DW has outsourced all things financial to me. I keep a set of directions in case of my demise updated and I keep a portfolio spreadsheet updated. With all the life insurance and other benefits DW would be a wealthy widow. She would face a steep learning curve, but she has two master's degrees from Columbia, so I am sure she would manage.

Now if I can just get her to come to the target range to learn how the shotgun works...