Does a spouse help or hinder saving for retirement ??

KingsX

KingsX

Senior Member
Location
Texas
.

I was a single mother when I was working, making decisions and saving for retirement.

I'm curious...

Does a spouse help [as in a second income] or hinder [as in a second spender and decision-maker] planning/saving for retirement ?
 

My wife was a stay at home mom raising our 6 children. She never earned an income outside the home. At 64 I found out that she qualified for social security under the spousal award and we received 45% of my social security more when we filed.

So it was because of her that we could afford to retire. So with that being said she greatly contributed to our retirement!!
 

my ex wife was a bad partner for retirement . she ran up credit card bills in a bad way .

i am married to my current wife for more than 15 years and we work great together in that regard . we both have similar ideas .

the only problem is we are both in to photography and we like great gear .

we have no adult supervision when it comes to spending . whatever we buy we not only need two of but we have no one to say don't buy that 2k lens . lol . sometimes i wish she was like most wives and would say if you buy that i will beat you with it ,. but nope she would just go i want one too .
 
My husband was a big help in planning and saving for our retirement, we both worked and he advised on all financial decisions, without him I likely wouldn't have saved as much as I did during my working years and probably would have never been able to afford an early retirement....which was my goal for many years.
 
Ditto for my husband. His mother grew up in a household consisting of a widow with 5 young children. She was very careful with money and hubby was the same. Never one to take risks we followed the simple plan of spending less than we earned and saving up for things we wanted or needed. We are now comfortable in a modest way and in our retirement we can afford to be generous with our giving to church, charity and family.
 
My ex-wife was a complete hindrance, she couldn't and wouldn't save a penny. She put us in a very bad financial situation for a while and her inability to function and work as a team towards a goal is what ultimately ended the marriage for me.

Wife #2 is awesome in just about every phase of our lives including saving for our retirement. We are both on the same page with what we want and how to get it!
 
Definitely a Help in this household... without 2 incomes here living in a very expensive area we'd be stuffed financially.. I managed to save most of my income so I was able to be financially secure enought to retire early last year..
 
We are a team, same goals with the same long term planning. Not with high paying jobs until the early 1980's but still managed to set aside money for retirement. During those years of higher pay, we enjoyed a 5 bedroom home on 8 acres<--- owned before retiring sold for 4 1/2 times the purchase price at age 55 with no federal tax on the gain. During those years as a family we traveled in a motor home, had a summer home in New Jersey. On a whim a 23 ft. boat stored at Fortescue marina. BUT never lost sight of our goal of retiring not depending on Soc. Sec. we upped investments.


Sold the fun stuff, retired 24 years ago to live mortgage free from 8 sources of income. Our "needs" still come 1st. but are easily met. So we don't hoard what we get, "want's" are bought when wanted. We saved, invested & ALWAYS followed our plan for our future. We spent then & are spending now. Low pay didn't deter us from wanting a good life in our senior years. Life is good.
 
My spouse would hinder it if we had joint accounts or if I even let him know about my finances. We married in our mid 40's. He has many children by previous marriages. His first wife died when they were very young. Anyway, I've teased him saying if he won a million dollars in the lottery, it would probably be gone in a month. He's too free handed with money both with his children and people who approach him for loans. That has gotten him into more than one financial jam. People don't pay him back but keep asking. He used to make money hand over fist and never thought to save or invest any of it. He just kept pouring all of it back into his small businesses. Well business got bad as customers' finances got tighter and tighter.

I on the other hand have been a saver since I was 23 and an investor since my late 30's. My husband would have a hundred ways to spend the money if he had access to it. For this reason, we do not and never will have joint accounts. He's a good man but in money matters I tell him sometimes "You went to the Psycho School of Money Management".
 
Not sure how to answer this one. My husband worked and made the higher salary with the better career path. I worked along the way, raised the children and managed the money. He earned it, I invested it. We are now in our dream location and doing some updating on the new place so we can enjoy for the next stage in life. We knew each other less than nine months before we married - it has been a good match!
 

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