| There was nothing to deal with. We are a team. We met at work and she was making $35K and I was making $80K at 35 and 37 years old. We both knew the company was on its last legs and I encouraged her to get a job that while it was making less, it had good benefits and she had two kids. We weren’t married yet. I knew I had a contract lined up with one of our customers when the company folded. I promised her I would help her make up the difference in income. I proposed to her and a week later the contract I was working on ended. I wasn’t really worried I knew I could get another contract. While I wasn’t working, she proposed that we go ahead and go to the courthouse so I could get on her insurance. Once, my job situation stabilized, she got another job making even less working with school system so she could be on the same schedule with her (now our) kids. But with good benefits. I changed jobs four times between 2012-2018 not having to worry about the viability of the company or the benefits knowing my wife had benefits. From the time we started dating until the beginning of 2020, our income gap went from $40K to $120K. The money was “ours” the entire time and we worked together to rebuild our lives from our financial messes before we got married - both previously divorced and my failed real estate business. Then in mid 2020 at 45, I got my first job in $BigTech working remotely in the cloud consulting department. We talked about her “retiring” at 45. By then, I was making 10x what she was making. We didn’t need the money. I knew I wasn’t changing jobs again and I didn’t want her to be in the school system at the height of Covid. I asked her to come up with a comfortable budget for her “allowance”. I have that amount deposited into “her” account when I get paid. She does what she wants with it. Now, when I travel for business, if she wants to come, I buy her ticket and we extend the trip for the weekend. Later this year, we will be doing the digital nomad thing traveling across the country. Disclaimer: my blog below will never be used for monetization - no ads, no affiliate links. I pay to host here. Anyone who knows my posting history knows that I’m anti-adTech. This is more of a personal journal. https://digitalnomadder.micro.blog/ |