Hello fellow Mustachians, this is your Mustachian wannabe here, looking for some advice.
How much disclousure do you give to your wife of your financials?
And how have you found is the best way to aling her with the MMM life style?
As of this moment my wife have maybe 50-60% visibility of our financial, mostly because she doesnt mind much about money.
Works on a business we both own, and she let's me manage almost 95% of household.
I have seriously consider sitting her to make a full disclosure of this new goal that we both have been working on it (She just doesnt know it).
And see how she sees it.
My fear is, she would not be as passionate as I am, and would like to redirect the extra cash we are currently stashing....
Oh my goodness:)
Well then, if you are indeed seriously considering sitting down with her and discussing 100% of your combined finances with her - then take a deep breath and just do it.
You really don't want her to accidentally discover what you've been up to:).
If you fear - like you say - that she might like to re-direct the extra cash differently then I'd say that is a valid reason to discuss it with her now.
Even if you end up comprising, you will find that in the end every good marriage needs to come to an agreement.
On the other hand, perhaps you could convince her to do it all your way for the next year or two and then re-visit your plans for the future.
If she is smart, she may well have ideas of her own that might benefit you both. Of course if culturally speaking she can't get over herself and wants to send all the extra cash to her family then you have a problem that you need to both come to terms with.
If she'd rather not be involved in the details of how you manage the finances - then I'd still discuss the current plans every quarter with her and try to get her on board with your plans.
I see no reason why either one of you would insist on doing things only her/his way. She is your wife and partner - so find a common goal. If you simply cannot come to terms - then I'd insist on 50% my way and 50% her way.
There is always a solution - you could switch off every month or every quarter and do it differently for the next six months or whatever - play with the math and get her interested.
It's all good, go ahead and talk with her.
You may or may not be glad that you did have this talk, but you sound open to communication and hopefully, your wife will agree to most of your plans for your future together. I'd expect you to be open and listen to her concerns and be open to compromise.
You can do this - you are trying your best for your family, but in today's world you do need to have your wife on board and you may well find that things progress 100% better when she is involved or she may be fine with having you manage the finances.
Even if she is at first upset about extra cash not going where she most likely will want it to go - it is best to have her fully on board or at the very least find a compromise that you can both live with.
Edited to add that:
We discuss everything that amounts to more than $300., we each have discretionary income to spend as we like and there is always 100% visibility.
Life and financial goals are definitely always up for discussion.