How 4 Personal Finance Bloggers Differ From Their Boyfriends with Money
After a conversation on Twitter, Vanessa from Random Thoughts and Acronyms, Michelle (Making Sense of Cents), Erika (From Shopping to Saving) and I all got talking about our how are boyfriends are with money. It was so fun to see the differences between the main men in our lives and how they function financially.
We paired up to bring you a bit of a different post for today, getting away from ourselves and focusing in on a big part of our lives and financial futures: the boys.
Vanessa
Random Thoughts and Acronyms
When I first met my boyfriend, he was absolutely everything that I thought the perfect man should be — tall, educated, and good with his money. It took me a good year to learn that that last part, good with his money, was a misjudgment on my part. Sure, BF has money, but it’s only because he spends almost none of it. Ever. For example, my first Christmas present was a photo of me in a Dollarama frame.
What’s even worse is that all of his money sits in a 1% bank account — at least to his credit, the money is in an actual savings account — he’s trying guys! Rent and bills, if they’re paid on time, are met each month with the kind of dread reserved for teeth pulling. In fact, until maybe two months ago, BF didn’t have a cell phone because he “couldn’t justify spending 25$ a month when I already had one”. Also, I won The Battle for the Internet but only after seven months of reasoning, pleading and sulking on my part. His share of the bill? 17$
Daisy
(@add_vodka)
I met my boyfriend when I was 18. I thought he was so successful. He worked as a Carpenter for a big company, and made a really good wage. He told me about how he worked in the orchards in our home town when he was 17 for a year, saving every last penny until he’d earned $10,000. He spent that $10K on a car. I thought he was amazing with money; at 18, I couldn’t save $100 for a trip, let alone $10,000 for anything.
I’m lucky. My boyfriend is still good with money in that he’s never taken on any debt (in fact, we were denied a mortgage late last year partially due to his lack of credit – he’d never had a credit card or a loan), and that he saves well over the required 10-20% of his income. But he’s not perfect; he keeps his savings in his chequing account for the sake of liquidity, and the argument over investing in his RRSP was like pulling teeth; finally, he put $500 in his account and hasn’t touched it since. The worst part? His chequing account accrues less than .25% interest.
Michelle
Making Sense of Cents (@SenseofCents)
My boyfriend and I met when we were 16 and in high school, and have been together for nearly 6 years. He has worked ever since he was a pre-teen, mainly because he’s always had a ton of hobbies that he would spend his money on. Whether it’s cars (he’s had 7 or 8 cars and his first car was a Porsche), guns, and so on, he is a BIG spendy-spender.
We are very different when it comes to money. He is much more spendy, while I prefer to save. We have set “allowances” within our budget for each other as well. Even though he’s a big spender, he has no debt (besides our mortgage), so I would say our fun money allowances work well. Another thing which is different is that he is also more about quality, whereas I’m cheap. I need to learn from him in this way. If I buy more for quality, I will save money in the long run. However, he is not good with managing his finances. I handle nearly EVERYTHING. So, if I wasn’t here, he would be screwed. This is something that we’re working on though.
Erika
From Shopping to Saving (@shopping2saving)
aww these are cute!!
I don’t have a significant other right now.. but the last guy I dated had just paid off the mortgage on his condo and he was 32! I couldn’t believe it. I don’t know how much it was but given housing prices he’s probably sitting on a $200K asset free and clear. Isn’t that crazy? 32!!!
Loved the group format of this post. It’s really interesting to see how you all view your boyfriends’ financial habits.
With my recent ex we definitely had different financial habits. She was just content living paycheck to paycheck without saving anything. If money built up, it was a reason to find something to spend it on. That kinda wore on the relationship as I started thinking about the future more.
This all just magnifies the importance of talking openly about money in a relationship. In some of your stories, maybe it would benefit both of you for your boyfriend to get more involved with pf blogging.
I need to find a way to get my wife on the saving train like me. Her excuse is always…stop being so damn cheap…
haha, and my wife is the exact opposite. SHe holds the purse strings and I have to BEG to get any money out of her for whatever new toy I want! 🙂 P.S. It’s funny that Canadians use the word “cheque” for “check.”
Fun post! I’m pretty much exactly like Vanessa’s boyfriend, while the boyfriend is a mix between Daisy and Michelle’s. He’s responsible, but doesn’t save as much as he could. He’s also all about quality over price which oftentimes makes me cringe even though I know he’s right.
These are all really unique and fun. Every guy handles his money just a little bit differently than the next. When I first met my wife, she was terrible about keeping track of her cash – to the point where her checkbook was off by $1000. After 13 years together, she’s come a long way. But she still leaves all the investing and planning to me.
Haha, these made me laugh :).
Cool, now I know how other guys handle their money. Could be interesting now to get your 4 boyfriends to write up a short paragraph each on how they perceive their girlfriends and money, as a follow up post 😉 .
That would be PERFECT!
Omg that’s awesome. I think we should!
Hahaha, yes, let’s!
I think my husband and I are pretty similar, as we have developed our attitudes toward money through the course of our relationship (age 20 and on). We both are fairly aggressive savers but save to splurge as well on vacations and bigger purchases (electronics). We also have a similar risk tolerance for our long-term investments – I might be slightly more risk-tolerant than he is.
I think more of our differences stemming from our families of origin (they are VERY different wrt money management) will emerge when we buy a house and have kids. I’m more stereotypically “middle class” and he’s more stereotypically “lower class” in terms of our expectations of child care and children’s activities.
All I learned from this is that all the good girls are already spoken for (luckily I’m already married!)
Seriously though, I do enjoy reading about the guys behind female PF bloggers.
Thanks ladies!
I LOVE this post! I always find it so interesting to see how different people handle their money, and the girlfriend perspective definitely makes it more interesting. I wish I had been in twitter that night!
I also agree with Liquid’s comment, I’d love to hear from your boyfriends on the subject as well.
My wife and I both go through spend and thrift phases. Unfortunately, our phases usually seem out-of-phase with each others.:)
The big thing that we differ on financially, however, is eating out. Me, I would pack a lunch to work and only go out for dinner once or twice a month, but she won’t eat the lunches I pack for her and always buys her lunch. And the only reason we have stopped eating dinner out as much as we used to is because we’re working opposite shifts. 🙁
Neat little boyfriend bios. Good post!
Fun idea! Love this post.
T’s always been a spender but has learned somewhat the value of saving and delayed gratification. Somewhat.
I don’t have a significant other right now, but I do have an ex-husband. One of the main reasons we aren’t together is because we never learned to handle our finances successfully together. He dumped everything on me, and then would “ask permission” if he could spend money since he had no idea what was going on. We both hated it. Definitely will not do that going into a new relationship. I love the way you guys did this post, very nice!
I agree w/ everyone here and really like the format. My wife and I are “pretty much” on the same page w/ money. She’s not as cheap as I am (but who is…). If we’re not on the same page, we’re definitely at least reading the same book…
Awesome post. You ladies need to team up again in the future for another one.
My husband has no interest in finances whatsoever. I try to include him – tell him where are money is going, but he just doesn’t care.
I love this post, great job ladies! I think the reason me and my BF rarely argue about money is because he’s frugal too. Well, not as frugal as me but when it comes to tax time we find out that spend and make about the same amount. He does have a tendency to buy lots of gadgets and music gear, but he’s smart by usually selling something he doesn’t need to make the money to buy the thing he wants. That’s how he upgrades to every new iphone, he sells his own and pays the difference for the new one. Not a bad idea.
Great post! I like the comparisons and the mindset behind their spending habits.
It’s interesting to see the different financial management styles of each of the BFs profiled in this post.
The take away is that a few of them have styles that are not particularly favorable to the women in their lives. It always makes me wonder why women tend to be better money managers than guys.
I am very lucky. My hubby is very good with money. In fact, I have learned my money management skills from him and I am much better off for it.
Love this grouping of posts. My boyfriend is really great with money. My parents split up partially because of money, so I’ve always told myself that I’d choose a partner who’s on the same financial page as me. Most divorces are because of money and money fights, so I think choosing someone who thinks the way you do about money is imperative if you want your marriage to work.
I love hearing about how people met. Very interesting about how 3/4 of the bf’s are the more spendy ones in the relationship. I’ve never tried to figure it out between me and Jeff. I think we are pretty similar, but with different things. I’m more willing to spend on clothes and home decor, whereas Jeff is more willing to spend on electronics, toys, and stuff I don’t care about :p
I love this post 🙂
I am more of a spender and the BF is more of a saver. He always thinks of ways to scrimp and save on things. I have always been aware of my spending habits and keep track of it. However, I do love to spend money so I always feel guilty whenever I buy something because the BF tries so hard to save on other stuff and make it easier for us.
Such a cute post. My bf is definitely the spender type – he has no retirement savings and never even thought about “savings” in general until I brought it up. He’s not exactly what you call responsible with money – he just doesn’t like budgeting of any sort. Luckily, he’s completely open with me handling his budget so we’ve made it work – he finally has savings!
How cute! I think of my boyfriend as the expert. He’s a saver, for sure. He even had enough money to make a loan to his dad, with interest! That’s a role reversal if I ever heard one.
Cool idea for a post! I enjoyed the format.
Seems like all of these guys are solid with money, certainly no disasters there. For some reason, Vanessa’s guy especially impressed with his apparent reluctance to spend much at all. This blogger says way to go Man.
I’m lucky that my better half is the brains when it comes to money matters and I’ve learned a lot from him over the years. And yes I hate that banks have such low interest rates these days as you brought up. 0.25% and 0.1% are the rates I’m getting now, it’s pathetic!
Love this post, and I’m really hoping you guys do a follow up with their perspectives as well!
Mr. Dollars and I met in University, and we’ve been together for almost four years now. He actually just saved up for and bought a motorcycle and he did all the saving in a short amount of time which was incredible. I really admire him for that! Since I’ve started doing the PF blogger thing, he’s started to ask me questions about different PF topics and I think he’ll take the money he was saving before and put it away for the future (or a trip, etc). I’ve been trying to nudge him to start an RRSP, but so far I haven’t had any luck. We’re moving in together in August and we’ve agreed that anything we need for the apt (furniture, bed, etc) is paid for in cash and that we don’t want any household debt (neither of us have any and I want it to stay that way).