Woman proposes ‘separate finances’ after discovering husband’s high-dollar spending habits: ‘This dude will ruin you’

A woman wants to separate her finances from her husband after he made some poor financial decisions. 

She asked Reddit’s “Am I the A******? (AITA)” forum to weigh in. She and her husband share 100% of their income. However, he is less responsible with money, and she is the breadwinner. After he made a few recent purchases, she asked him to divide their earnings up. 

“My husband and I have been married for almost three years, together six, no kids,” she explained. “I’ve always been the breadwinner, but we both have always had decent 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. jobs, and our finances have always been 100% joint with one account for all spending. The past few months, I decided to finally get out from under $20,000 in credit card debt in my name. I sold my engagement ring and car (with my husband’s full support). 

“On my husband’s side, he’s been less willing to make lifestyle changes. His car he bought last summer (an AMG Mercedes) costs over $900/mo with high interest and insurance. It’s been in the shop for months, and they’ve officially diagnosed a $2,900 repair. He has $7,000 on a card racking up over $100 a month in interest that he hasn’t made a dent in because he keeps using it.”

The woman came up with a possible resolution to solve the issue, but her husband wasn’t receptive at all. 

“My husband makes $75,000 a year; I now make $116,000,” she wrote. “He is underwater on the car loan. He wants to trade in for a Mustang GT, rolling in negative equity. He doesn’t want to trade in for a cheap beater for a year. We have no meaningful savings right now. Tonight I told him I wanted to separate finances.”

“Not even completely — just 30% of our paychecks now get transferred out into separate accounts for our own discretionary spending. Anything in the joint now goes to bills and savings. I told him we’d revisit in a month or two when the car situation is sorted to explore 100% separate finances, 60/40 bill split. He’s very upset, saying the car is an important hobby for him and my idea solves nothing, it only creates more stress and division.” 

Redditors warned the poster that this could end in disaster.

“While you’re separating finances, separate lives too. This dude will ruin you,” a user wrote

“You should not have to be responsible for your husband’s bad financial decisions,” another said

“He needs to grow up and become financially responsible,” someone commented

In The Know is now available on Apple News — follow us here!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this baby monitor that alerted mom to strange movement at 12 a.m. and captured an unexpected visitor.

More from In The Know:

Listen to the latest episode of our pop culture podcast, We Should Talk: