What if one spouse makes seven figures and the other is unemployed and takes care of the household? The income disparity then is too high for this, it seems to me, but maybe it's just me.
My spouse and I have a simple plan. I make the money, and my spouse spends it. :)
When money was tighter, we would coordinate more closely and more frequently about expenses and timing. Now I just maintain a certain balance in checking and we coordinate over large payments to make sure they don't hit checking all at once.
If you or your spouse is making seven figures, you shouldn't have actual money problems -- even if taxes take half, you can save half and still have 250k/year to spend; spend half of that on a $5M mortgage, and you've still got more spending money than US median income. Your money management priorities should be around limiting the time it takes to manage, unless you get enjoyment out of micro managing it.
My relationship is the same. I make a lot of money, and there's not much I want. I get a lot of joy out of watching my wife get things she wants though (which almost always makes my life better in ways I don't always expect).
Certainly when we made less money we had to coordinate much more.
Yeah, I guess you're right. I was thinking of a situation where one spouse has a high income and the other one is very spendy, but that's a pathological case, and not what's happening with me personally, so what you say makes sense, thank you.
I don't think there's any income disparity that can't be handled by the last method, where each person gets a monthly allowance for whatever, and other expenses are jointly decided on?
Mathematically there's no reason the pocket money system wouldn't work with an arbitrarily high income disparity. Is there an interpersonal issue that you see arising?
Lottery winners have a much harder problem than those with seven figure income. A lottery winner is usually getting a single big lump sum; if you spend too much, you don't get a second chance.
Someone with a large income probably grew their income over several years (although, if you know of any career paths with seven figure starting salaries...), and have had a chance to learn that even though it's a huge amount of money, it's not infinite money. But if you do overspend one year, you're likely getting a bunch of money the next year, so you can probably work it out.
You mean the actual statistics that show that lottery winners’ happiness is enormously improved by their windfall over the long term, and they make sensible investments in their future?
Or the outliers who blow all the money on silly things and make the news but aren’t actually at all representative?
