Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:People who are not bothered by how much more she could be accumulating towards retirement: Have you watched anyone who is elderly and frail try to deal with inadequate funds? Someone close to me was terrible at investing and completely impractical when it came to activities of daily living. He and his wife couldn't do a lot of the tasks that needed doing, weren't willing to move to a more-manageable place, and couldn't afford to hire someone to do things for them.

Went to a hardware store this morning, and we were helped by a guy who looked like he was well north of 80 and most definitely not the owner. I have seen older people waiting tables in shitty chain restaurants. This is what putting all your savings in cash will likely lead to.

See also: greeters at Walmart.

This may be off key here, but investing in cash is irresponsible, almost as much as someone who doesn't invest at all. I understand being conservative, but putting more than an insignificant amount of retirement funds in cash is really stupid.

Anonymous wrote:People who are not bothered by how much more she could be accumulating towards retirement: Have you watched anyone who is elderly and frail try to deal with inadequate funds? Someone close to me was terrible at investing and completely impractical when it came to activities of daily living. He and his wife couldn't do a lot of the tasks that needed doing, weren't willing to move to a more-manageable place, and couldn't afford to hire someone to do things for them.

Went to a hardware store this morning, and we were helped by a guy who looked like he was well north of 80 and most definitely not the owner. I have seen older people waiting tables in shitty chain restaurants. This is what putting all your savings in cash will likely lead to.

People who are not bothered by how much more she could be accumulating towards retirement: Have you watched anyone who is elderly and frail try to deal with inadequate funds? Someone close to me was terrible at investing and completely impractical when it came to activities of daily living. He and his wife couldn't do a lot of the tasks that needed doing, weren't willing to move to a more-manageable place, and couldn't afford to hire someone to do things for them.

Select a CFP, make an appointment and allow your wife to hear what s/he has to say. You could give a heads up in advance that your wife is afraid to invest any of her money. See if that helps her loosen up.

At root it has to be emotional and she would probably have to address it at that level, not just an information level. She would have to feel comfortable enough to move out of all cash.

That would drive me a bit crazy too and I am the female side of the partnership, but consider that this is the better problem to have. She is a saver. She sits on the $. There are many partners who are in despair over the profligacy and debt and out of control habits of their spouses.

Like the PP at 19:13, I would focus on inflationary risk and also the loss of compounding.

An automatic rebalancing scheme would probably help her, taking it out of her hands. Our company has financial engines on board to rebalance and I signed up. Theoretically I could do it myself, but in practice I have NEVER been able to bring myself to rebalance.

OP, here are a couple of ideas.

1. Show her that there are different kinds of risk and that one of those risks is inflation risk. She will lose money through inflation if she's not earning anything on her money.

2. Does she get a company match? Can you convince her that the match is "free" money that she wouldn't have had anyway and to at least invest that with some risk?

Signed,
A SAHM who has a finance degree and is less risk averse than her husband

Anonymous wrote:sayingote=Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You married for her retirement portfolio and are down on the ROI?

OP here. No I didn't marry for her retirement portfolio. As a matter of fact, my retirement account is almost three time as large as hers mainly due to her lack of investment. And I can foresee the difference will further widen if this goes on.
It will just frustrate me when 20 or 30 years down the road we find out we could have been a LOT richer. Life is an optimization process for us although we don't always get what we wanted in the end.

You are just one sorry dude and I am so glad not to be married to such an a-hole.

Just accumulate your own damn wealth and let your wife do what she wants with her earnings.

IF you make it " 20 or 30 years down the road" and that's a big IF considering you think this might be a marriage breaker, I hope you will come to realize that an awesome marriage and life partner is worth more than being "a LOT richer."