Women CONTROL the finances in America.

It's long been accepted that women control the majority of personal wealth in the US. So the 60% figure there and the 51% for stocks comes as no surprise. If anything the %ages are probably higher. But these statistics aren't what I consider important when it comes to what women control. There is a vastly more valuable commodity where women are unarguably the majority owners. They control 100% of the p*ssy.

My X is a paid up in full member of the female stock owners association. It's something I encouraged her to do as opposed to just piling up money in a "safe" government bond fund. She found a local investment advisor, who happened to be a woman, with a long term record of success. I should have pushed some of my money into the pile for this woman to look after. She has beaten my investments in Janus Funds and Vanguard by a goodly % over the last 9 years.

GC there's a funny saying - somewhat vulgar but hey - we're grown ups - "the other guys' dick always looks larger" - How this applies to money in divorces is spouses always find someone who has more money as an example "we're not as well off as the joneses" 

Or perhaps this is my own experience - where I am told I do not have enough money [though numbers would disagree] IMHO

You guys are too worried about money and penis size!

I suppose those things matter for some people, but I've tried to cultivate a more zen attitude toward money (penis size is of no consequence to me unless we're talking micro-penis) because no matter how much you have, it will never be enough if your goal is acquiring more of it. So it's best not to want. I think that's kind of a Buddhist kind of thing too, though I'm not an official Buddhist.

That said, I have excellent taste and really appreciate certain expensive things. Hence, I'm always prowling consignment stores and buying stuff with the depreciation (but hopefully not the utility) taken out.

So I'm not sure if I'm in denial, a hypocrite, or just really well-balanced!

Money can be fun, but it can also be a big hassle. It can empower you or trap you. It is no substitute for love, but neither is poverty.

I do strongly believe that when accumulating money becomes your goal rather than enjoying your life, you need to rethink your priorities. But that's just my view. YMMV.

Australia is my jurisdiction, but I figure that the situation here would likely mirror other jurisdictions.

In most marital situations of which I am aware, one of the spouses tends to handle the bulk of the financials.

In our specific situation, I handle the bulk of ours and I keep Ms enna fully informed of where we are financially quite regularly and it's an open book. We allow ourselves a modest amount of individual dicretionary spending but anything over that is a matter of discussion and joint agreement. It works fine.

Within our circle of friends I would say that it is the wife who handles the bulk of the financials in better than half the cases.

I think where people run themselves into the shit is when NEITHER of the spouses pay much heed to the financials and just muddle on from payday to payday.

Another problem area is where one of the spouses handles the financials but freezes the other out of the process. Warning sirens should be blaring under those circumstances.

One more problem area is one of the spouses being completely undisciplined in their spending.

Yet another is the spouse controlling the finances being incompetent at the task.

In the broader picture I think that as long as one of the spouses is competently and transparently handling the finances on a consultative basis then it doesn't particularly matter whether it's the wife or the husband.

You are my kind of woman saarinista….