What's your view.....?

Question

Being married, if one spouse has a spending problem. Has accumulated a lot of debt, which now their income isn't enough to pay or live decent.

Should the other spouse go back to work to earn money towards the debt or would that new money just empower the spending spouse to keep spending?

What is your view and thoughts?

The debt is 3/4 for spending spouse only. Other was purchased under excuse of benefit to family,but were just wants.

The spending spouse is the Husband, should the homemaker wife be forced to go to work?

Answer 1

The spouse that has spending problem should get professional help. Maybe he/she is trying to fill a void. But the other spouse getting a job could enable the spender to go completely out of control. They should have split checking accounts for the time being. And see where it goes from there.

Answer 2

Personally, I believe that a working couple should have completely separate finances. That has worked out well for me in my past two relationships. We just split the bills and expenses, so any money left over was free to spend it however we wanted to.
I think that if the working spouse has accumulated enough debt that the nonworking spouse has to go back to work, then they need to go to credit counseling first, to work out a debt relief plan. Then the nonworking spouse can go back to work to help with the bills, but there will be a plan in place to prevent the other spouse from spending all the money.
Just my two cents!

Answer 3

I think you and your spouse earn money towards the debt to pay it off. Then you should get a personal account where you can only take out money and then make a budget and have a set amount of money for each of you to spend a month.

Answer 4

You should never married someone who has a debt! If you did that means that you are for the ride of your life paying for some of his/her mistakes. He or she should look for a second or even a third job to pay for it. Remember he/she had spended money that didn't belinged to him/her and now has to pay it back of couse with interes and all, if he/she doesn't the other spouse would get that also on his/her record. It is not fair. Now tell me would you like to pay for the mistakes of someone else , if you do. I can arrange so you can pay some of mine! lol good luck.

Answer 5

okay first things is this, cancel all accts where the debt is, cut up all cards. 2nd thing IF the spouse goes back to work, HAVE that paycheck go into a seperate checking acct ONLY they have access to to pay normal bills with. The person that ran up the debt also needs to get a 2nd job.

Answer 6

My views would be: I would get a job because the bills still need to get paid, BUT I won't be an enabler for my spouse to keep spending money and I would put my foot down when it comes to unecessary spending. I would sit down with him and encourage us to work on money managing skills and would divide money accordinly but set aside an "allowance" for spending on other, less important things.

Answer 7

The new money would probably empower them to spend more.
Has this person doing the spending been evaluated for any kind of mental disorder? Sometimes that comes with bipolar disorder and depression. People who do not drink or use drugs find other ways, such as shopping, to get their "kicks", so to speak.

Answer 8

The spouse should go to work and practice some self control...hopefully they have learned their lesson...if they need money then another income needs to be added in order to live properly

Answer 9

Was the debt a shared benefit for the family?

Answer 10

I think you should address the issue with your partner about that habit and also help out by going back to work,but after you go back to worked if there's no changes on it's part there is reason to be concern about that situation.