Dear Quentin, After finishing graduate school, my wife and I decided to pay off all our debt before buying a home, or anything for that matter. We have been cheaply renting for the last three years, and living as if I were still a very poor graduate student. During this …
Read More »The Moneyist: My wife had a baby 3 months ago. She has $160,000 in student loans — and just asked for my ‘blessing’ to work part time
Dear Moneyist, My wife and I had our first baby 3 months ago. As the breadwinner, my wife just returned to work after 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave. Our savings are a bit low and she is now “asking for my blessing” to work part-time. This is distressing to …
Read More »The Moneyist: My late partner of 7 years fought with his estranged wife and transferred $250K into a trust for me. Can she contest that money?
Dear Quentin, I was with my significant other for almost 7 years. While he was separated from his wife, they never divorced. It was due to financial reasons. Because of his difficult relationship with his wife I was made his health-care surrogate. Last September, he underwent cancer surgery, and realized …
Read More »The Moneyist: ‘I feel un-American. My appliances are 20 years old. I shop in thrift stores’: My wife wants a nicer place to live. What do I do?
Dear Quentin, During my 20s, I was broke. I bought my first house and lived alone, stretched to my limits. I had three maxed-out credit cards and lived paycheck to paycheck. Today, I’m in my 40s, married and in a much better financial situation. My 401(k) has done very well …
Read More »The Moneyist: My wife spent $50K on cosmetic procedures. It horrifies me to see so much money being blown on something so frivolous’
Dear Quentin, Over the past three years, my wife has spent over $ 50,000 on cosmetic procedures. She never used to be a vain person. It started with a face lift after she turned 40, and now she can’t stop blowing money on everything from Botox and lip fillers to …
Read More »The Moneyist: My wife has homeschooled our son and our best friends’ son since September due to COVID-19. Is it too late to bring up money?
Dear Quentin, My wife and I have a 7-year-old son who would normally be attending the public-school system this year. However, for a variety of reasons mostly driven by the pandemic, we decided we would homeschool our son for first grade this year. My wife is currently a stay-at-home mom …
Read More »The Moneyist: ‘I feel like she has joined some abusive cult’: My wife makes $25,000 and only gets 1.5% annual pay raises. What can I do?
Dear Moneyist, My wife and I have been married for 18 years and met at work in 2000. She is college educated and has worked her entire life with the exception of a few years off when our kids were very young. For the past 13 years of our marriage …
Read More »The Moneyist: My ex-husband put his new wife on his life-insurance policy before he died, going against our divorce decree. Now she’s battling me in court
Dear Moneyist, I divorced my ex-husband in 2017. It was a difficult divorce, and later he quit paying child support and we were in a long court battle, which now continues after his death. The 2017 divorce decree stated my ex was to maintain the current life-insurance policy we had …
Read More »The Moneyist: My wife and I missed mortgage payments due to debts, yet she asks about vacations and hides her finances. What do I do?
Dear Moneyist, For 10 years, my wife and I saved up and, in 2018, purchased our first home before we hit the age of 30. Over the last two years, events have not gone in our favor, especially with COVID-19. In March, I had to have gallstone surgery, and that’s …
Read More »