Allowances

Michael Cain says:

When I was a lad old enough to understand money, my Dad was a field auditor/engineer for an insurance company. At least a third of the time he was on the road. So I grew up with Mom’s name on the bank accounts, and Dad got an allowance for personal expenses, because decisions had to be made and he wasn’t there. Any sort of major purchase decision they made jointly and Mom got the final word. When did this make a difference in my life?

1) I got my reading jones from Dad. He taught me that some books are worth skipping lunch for because the allowance won’t cover both. Some aren’t.

2) I recall that when my wife and I combined “my” money and “your” money into “our” money I told her, “No two people balance a checkbook exactly the same way. I refuse to learn your way, and don’t expect you to learn my way. Do you trust me to balance it?” After a sufficiently long silence I smiled and said, “I absolutely trust you to take care of the money,” and dumped that whole burden.Report