| Wednesday, August 23, 2006 |
| She's a saver. He's a spender |
Money Magazine has a great money profile of a couple: She's a saver. He's a spender A series of recent events have exacerbated the differences in their financial styles. In January, Michael was offered a job in Phoenix, prompting the couple to move there from Chicago with their daughter Ava, 19 months. But Michael's new position pays mostly on a commission basis, and Brittany's hunt for part-time work has been stymied by the news that she's expecting their second child in January.
Although Michael expects to be earning six figures again in a few years, at the moment their once comfortable $135,000-a-year dual income has dropped by more than half.
To make ends meet, they've burned through $11,000 of their $15,000 emergency savings and tapped $15,000 of a home-equity line of credit on their soon-to-be-sold Chicago condo.
And Brittany is increasingly nervous about managing their spender-saver tendencies on an unpredictable income. "I'm constantly stressed out about it," she says. It is nice to see a story where the woman is the saver and the man is the spender for once :) |
| posted by Boston Gal @ 1:52 PM *
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| 8 Comments: |
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As far as I know it usually is the woman who is more of a saver, and the guy is spending. In fact, even Suze Orman commented about this on her show the other day. It seems like the tide has turned!
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I think that guy just sounds insecure, immature and spoiled. He has to drive a car to match his income? I don't think he will ever be happy with his income as long as he continues with his "have to look better than the Jones'" attitude. Sadly, I don't think he is in the minority for this age group (of which I am included).
By the way, thanks for another great link, Jane!
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I have to agree with aimee, too often in magazine or other articles the man is shown to be the spender, not the woman. I don't understand why this is happening either. In my life it was the wife that was the wild spender (but not nearly as bad as the guy in the article).
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"Take Christmas, for instance. Last year Michael dropped a cool $2,500 on presents for Brittany, including a Lladro figurine and a diamond necklace; Brittany bought him a $300 iPod."
Wow. He is really "generous".
What about Valentine's day, Thanksgiving, Mother's day, Father's day ...
I can never understand these people ...
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That guy must be in sales (which would explain the commissions and the attitude). I used to be in sales. The job breeds that attitude. There is always a big commission around the corner. And commission sales people are breed to be eternal optimists, not to mention encouraged to reward themselves with material goods. Everybody in the office looks up to the hot salesman who just scored the big deal and bought himself a new top of the line Bimmer as proof he's top dog, blah blah blah.
Anyhow, I am the spender, my wife is the saver. Over the years, however, I've become much more of a saver. My slurging is now on investments, not cars.
I think they are headed towards trouble. The article makes it sound like he's completely stubborn and has to have his way, which is not going to lead to improving matters. She sounds like a pushover.
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As he is a salesman, I think he thinks he needs the car to make a good impression on his clients.
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I think the guy sounds like a total a**hole. She's the type of person who values money in the bank, yet he's buying diamonds and $1k tchotchkes "for her" for Xmas? Those gifts are all about him. Ugh.
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I read this too and think that they have much bigger problems than money. I mean, the guy is ok with calling his wife's ideas stupid in a national magazine.
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As far as I know it usually is the woman who is more of a saver, and the guy is spending. In fact, even Suze Orman commented about this on her show the other day. It seems like the tide has turned!