This thread has reminded me of what psychologists call an "investment trap." (It's not about whether this investment is a good one or a bad one -- it's about how human brains function and lead us to make decisions the way we do.)
I don't know if that's what's going on here, but I'm going to take the liberty of using this situation as an example, in case this hasn't been discussed before:
First, you are asked to make small, incremental commitments. Initially, just a meeting with a rep. Then, $4000 to join. Then, monthly meetings. Each week, you are given new opportunities and asked to invest more.
Along the way, you get mixed in with a bunch of folks who are "eating up" the pitches being made to them, so there's the pressure of the crowd working on you also. The enthusiasm is infectious. In fact, you'd be a fool not to join in.
Not surprisingly, you invest -- who wouldn't like to pay off their mortgage -- it's a great goal! But you get to the point where you're starting to get uncomfortable. Small investments are adding up to an increasingly big number, or the promises are starting to sound too good to be true. You start to feel "cognitive dissonance" which means that you are holding two competing thoughts in your brain at the same time. "This is a scam," says one part of your brain, while the other is saying "I still believe this might pay off... the Better Business bureau thinks they're ok," etc. etc.
Having two competing thoughts in your brain feels bad. You must make a choice. You can decide that yes, it's a scam, and you've made a mistake -- a VERY hard thing to do, (least of all because of the money). On the other hand, you can decide that everything is ok, that you're still a smart investor, and that your worries are groundless and should be ignored.
Because you've invested your money, your time, and your concept of yourself as a smart investor in this program, you really REALLY want to believe that the deal is a good one. Yo
ur human brain is wired to chose this alternative. Experiments in psychology have documented this over and over again.
Investment partners may find themselves at different stages in this process. One may not be at the cognitive dissonance stage yet, or may in the stage where she's escaping her worries by rejustifying and rejustifying her decisions. This feeling is so strong that she wants to invest MORE to justify what's already been spent. Your wife's statement "we've got to get our money's worth out of this" is classic. Good money after sunk costs.
I think it's instructive that the majority of folks who replied to this thread -- and who have not made the same incremental investments --immediately saw it as questionable.
I don't know how to get out of this trap myself -- in the past it has manifested for me by my hooking up with the wrong man and hoping he'll change somehow...
One way you might compromise is to say that you'll invest in new ideas
using the profits from current investments, when they come in. Your wife isn't forced to choose between investing and admitting a mistake, and you're not plowing more into what might be a dubious enterprise.
It might be useful to do some reading to see if this model applies to the situation at hand, in addition to reading about investment principles. The alternative seems to be to continue to arge with one another and / or to put still more money into a program that's making you unhappy.
Whatever happens, good luck to you!