Hmmm, I have been with the same lovely lady going on 14 years now. Married 9.
We share a life together, sometimes it is hard to do but, we stumble along together, hand in hand. We made a comittement to one another long ago willfully and by choice. We share not only our lives together but finances as well. We do not keep seperate bank accounts and seperate tallies of monetary issues. We have to make decissions together as to what receives a financial priority.
I must say that I am guilty about overplaying the role that Steyr speaks about in his post. I cannot speak for other men, both married and not, I can only speak for myself. Many times when there is something I want I will blame my wife for not being "allowed" to purchase it. The honest fact is though I am simply making an excuse for lack of finances most of the time.
I along with many others here would like to own all the toys I could get my greedy little hands on, but alass I do not have the financial means to do so.
On a daily basis my wife and I have to decide where our limited funds will go. Retirement savings, college funds, mortgage, car payments, groceries, school bills, medical bills, unforseen bills, fun toys, creditors, and the list sometimes feels like it goes on forever.
We spend our money wisely, we have excellent credit, we own multiple homes, our vehicles are older but, paid off, and we even have some money left over to buy the finer things in life including "toys". We could not have reached this point (for we are only in our early thirties) if we did not RESPECT EACH OTHER and TALK ABOUT OUR HIGH TICKET ITEM PURCHASES FIRST.
We have many times talked each other out of dropping thousands of dollars on a purchase the other felt was "unwise".
So, I do not own expensive NFA items because my wife would
if I ever came home with a $15,000 machine gun. Well yes and no. She would
because I just spent our bill money on it, which would cause very bad things to happen to our credit. Just like I would
her if I came home to find a new living room set tomorrow.
Truth is, some of us use the "My wife would kill me........" lines to cover our own financial inadequecies in a more humorous manner. I just would not 'sound cool' if I said, yeah man I am cannot buy that $1000 gizmo 'cause my cash is already earmarked for (insert bill, payment, etc. here).
I have been doing what I want, when I want, for a decade, and have been fortunate enough not to screw up my finances or my marriage despite the fact.
For humors sake though, sometimes It just doesn't seem that way. Being responsible for more than just yourself has a way of setting your priorities. Sometimes you do not like them thus, you may find ways of making them seem less like priorities. this happens to be the way I do things.
And sometimes, well honestly she would just kill me if I did certain things. For example; Steyr, I would love to fly down to Florida and hang with you next weekend while going out to a strip club or two, getting drunk, and eating lavishly. (yeah right, and leave my 'Honey' at home bored silly)! Yup some thing just ain't gonna happpen.