A man has sought advice on the internet after his wife confronted him about his spending habits.
As the man in question revealed in his lengthy Reddit post, he had been donating a large portion of his $90,000-a-year salary to charity after one of his relatives died from cancer.
When the man eventually landed an even better salary, he decided to donate as much as half of his earnings to a variety of non-profit organizations without consulting his wife about it first.
“Now I am earning significantly more and can afford to donate about half of my pretax income and still cover all of our expenses with the remaining amount,” he explained.
“My wife works part-time and all of that goes to our savings. But she feels that we are being restricted too much in terms of our budget because of this. It’s not like we have to be extremely frugal or anything, we’re quite comfortable. But we’re not buying the newest MacBook model every year either.”
While the man appears to be happy with their current arrangement, his wife is not thrilled about being forced to save all of her salary for their future and be left with little to nothing to spend on themselves and their needs due to her partner’s significant charity contributions.
“She is adamant that we should curtail our donations because a) it likely doesn’t make much of a difference compared to the billions that already go into cancer research, b) it prevents us from living a better lifestyle, and c) I’m exerting too much control over our finances by allocating such a large amount of money to ‘what I am interested in,’” the husband added.point 429 | 1
The rift between the couple has since grown bigger and bigger, whereas the pair have “hardly talked” for several days because of the issue.
After asking Reddit for advice, the man was met with mixed reactions. While some people suggested he was selfless for donating half of his salary to good causes, others suggested he was selfish for prioritizing his need for contentment over his wife’s needs.
“For me, point (c) is the kicker. Whether or not the donations are useful or valuable or make a difference, you are making an enormous financial decision that does affect your family without allowing your wife a say in the matter,” someone wrote.
“That would honestly be a dealbreaker for me. I would never marry someone who thought that giving away what is almost half of our income without my agreement was acceptable.”
Another warned: “It’s amazing that you want to be this philanthropic, but when you have a partner, financial decisions should be made together. There’s a compromise here – but the two of you need to talk and find it.”
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