Does your spouse give you an allowance each month?
In Japan, where husbands regularly hand over their entire salary to their wives, roughly three quarters of family finances are controlled by women who give their mates an allowance, BBC News reports.
47-year-old Taisaku Kubo, for instance, has been getting 50,000 yen a month (roughly $535) from his wife Yuriko for the past 15 years.
He's tried to negotiate a raise from time to time, but his wife isn't very sympasthtic: "She draws a pie chart of our household budget to explain why I can't get more pocket money," says Taisaku, whose stipend accounts for about 9% of the family's monthly budget.
And he's actually not doing that badly. According to Shinsei Bank which has been researching the trend for years, the average salaryman's monthly pocket money was 39,600 yen last year, down sharply from about 80,000 yen 20 years ago when Japan's economy was booming.
But the idea of either spouse living off an allowance doesn't sit well with most North Americans.
"I have met a surprising number of women who tell me their husbands give them an allowance, says one wife of 14 years. "This really rubs me the wrong way and ranks right up there with husbands “babysitting” their children."
"To me an allowance is something you give your children as you teach them to be responsible with money, not something you give your wife," she adds.
Then, of course, there's the husband who's thinking of determining his wife's allowance by putting a $$ value on specific chores.
How do things work in your house? Other than kids, is anyone working off an allowance?
By Gordon Powers, MSN Money
Posted by: Click here | Oct 1, 2021 1:59:46 PM
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Posted by: Jennifer | Oct 2, 2021 1:56:01 AM
People can call it what they like ..allowance, budget, etc. ..the point is that people probably ought to start living within their means, if that is an issue that concerns them. If it's not a concern to them, then rock on ! The problem with manipulating social attitudes (i.e., informing everyone that they 'should' be doing this or they 'should' be doing that) is that one way does not work for everyone. Certainly there is typically a way that works better than another way (such as spending less than you make, in order to maintain a positive bank balance) ..but if everyone is behaving ideally, then there aren't many problems ..and problems = business. If all of the social 'problems' are eliminated, then there would be no need for a business to address these problems and 'fix' them. People who overspend, for example, create a business for someone who is willing to lend them money to pay for their overspending. The business created is 'loan with interest'. Similarly for people who overeat. The businesses created for the results of overeating are 'diet plans', 'reflux acid pills', etc. So, to keep business/economy/society rolling, there will always have to be people who over-something ..be it over-spending, over-eating, over-drinking, over-emotionalising, over-exercising, over-working, etc. The long and short of it is that if one is interested in maintaining a balance in their lives, then they will find it ..when the student is ready, the teacher appears.
Posted by: Colour of money | Oct 2, 2021 9:08:05 AM
I don't think the crux of the article is about overspending, but rather financial autonomy. Allowance is something you give to a child. The word is based on the root "allow", as in "I control the money, and I allow you to spend the portion that I deem sufficient for your wants."
North Americans are notoriously independent, and so the idea of an equal (a spouse) allowing the other to spend a portion of THEIR money is demeaning and patronizing.
That being said, I control the budget and make >80% of the income. Both my wife and I have strict and equal allowances that get placed in our own private accounts. Most income is put in a joint account that pays bills and neither of us is allowed to use outside of bills.
By the way, this makes the buying of gifts for each other more meaningful, as the gifts come from our own allowance rather than the family pot.
Posted by: Robert | Oct 2, 2021 10:01:23 AM
The last time I bought my wife flowers, she cut my allowance.
Posted by: christy | Oct 2, 2021 12:24:01 PM
For the last 30 years, I have done all the family budgetting. I have allocated equal allowances to my husband and myself. The amount may change according to economic circumstances (like unemployment or bonuses), but we both agree on the amount. This way, we can save up for big purchases guilt-free, or spend it on lots of smaller items. We never have to argue about purchases or hide things from each other like so many spouses we know. Personal purchases are clearly defined, which also makes it easy for us. And the amount is way less than the Japanese husband's in the article! We're both very happy with my system, and our children have also had allowances and learned to budget too. I joke with my husband that even if I had a million dollars a year coming in, I'd still have an itemised budget with slightly larger allowances, maybe.