Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Do you all have a budget? It sounds like she has a lot of anxiety around money. One way to deal with that is to write a budget, including a generous allowance for unexpected expenses/emergencies. That way she can know that you can afford it.
Yeah, we make ~$400k and have a 12 month liquid emergency fund
That's not a budget. The question isn't can you afford it, the question is does your wife *feel* you can afford it. Since you say she has an unhealthy relationship with money and clearly has a lot of anxiety with money, it sounds like money is a frequent cause of fights between the two of you. If this is a relationship you think is worth fixing, it might be helpful to write a monthly budget. Divide your take-home pay into 12, and then sort it into categories: so much for your mortgage, so much for entertainment, so much for emergency expenses, so much for whatever else is important to you (and her). Since you have plenty of money, it almost doesn't matter what decisions you make or if you stick with it: the point is to have a discussion in which your wife can see that there is plenty of money.
We have a budget spreadsheet where everything from mortgage payment to toilet paper from Target is tracked and grouped in budget buckets. Our financial picture is clear to both of us and if anything more to my wife as she’s the one managing the spreadsheet.
Then I'd suggest counseling. Stuff happens. A flat tire is really no one's fault unless you hit the curb at high speed, aimed for a nail, etc.
My kid opened the car door in a tight parking space tonight and managed to ding the car next to us. Well, it was a brand new car from a rental place so we may be on the hook for the ding. I don't have as much money as you, but we aren't hurting. It happens. My kid wasn't even being careless. I am certainly not going to make her feel worse than she already did.
This isn't really a money problem. This is an emotional/attitude problem that your wife has. There's nothing to apologize for here. She needs to get to the bottom of whatever her issue is and solve it.