Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Financial Bully

According to this post from the Today Show, it sure sounds like I should be classified as a financial bully.  We work on an allowance system, so I absolutely limit the amount of money Mr. Sam has to spend.  I similarly limit the amount of money I have to spend as well.

I think if you asked Mr. Sam about this system he would have the following to say.  First, he is very happy at our progress over the last 7 years (since we got married).  We paid of $55,500 in unsecured debt the first year and half of that was Mr. Sam's MBA debt.  We have also made good progress at saving money every year since then.  So he recognizes that by limiting our spending and working from a spending plan and an allowance system there is a payoff.

Second, he does, from time to time complain about running out of money and further complains that he can't have a credit card.  When I say "he can't have a credit card" he agrees with the fact that he has an abstainer personality and therefore really can't have one.  What that means is that Mr. Sam can't eat just one cookie, rather if there are cookies in the house he will eat the entire package.  So, in order to not eat an entire package of cookies he has to abstain and not have them available.  I am a moderator personality which means that I could each just one cookie a week (if I want cookies in the house I have to hide them).  So when it comes to money, Mr. Sam really will spend just about as much money (or utilize as much credit) as is available to him.  Hence the allowance system actually works very well for him.

While I am the financial task-master in the house, Mr. Sam is involved in the decision making, the spending plan creation, the savings goal setting, etc.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would be classified as a bully with you, based on their ridiculous perspective. That's mainstream America these days... spending=happiness.

Anonymous said...

I would be classified as a bully with you, based on their ridiculous perspective. That's mainstream America these days... spending=happiness.