I just did a post saying ‘Men and Money’ so here is a post on Women and Money. Assuming that the Man is the main provider and the wife is the secondary (financial) provider, what are the things she should do to know how much is the husband earning? Is it enough? Are they living within their means?

Ask him!

Life is however, not so simple. Many men themselves do not know whether they are earning enough. So they may not give you the right answer. Also if a man has inherited a lot of money he may assume his standard of living to be his birth right. So many of these people become ASSET rich, but cash flow poor. Imagine having a house in Bandra (ok Defence Colony in Delhi) worth Rs. 3 crores, but not having the cash flow to pay maintenance charges! It is not uncommon.

As a wife you should:

a) ask for a fixed amount of money for household expenses – and keep increasing the asking. In case you can, start saving a portion of that – you are asking the money to see if he can afford the cash flow, not to really spend it.

b) tell him that each kid costs……Rs. and therefore as a family you SHOULD do a SIP in a couple of mutual funds to the extent of say Rs. 35,000 p.m.

c)….ditto….Rs. 50,000 p.m. for retirement

when you put these kind of loads on his cash flow and he is able to do it, fine.

However, he can give you excuses like:

a) My CA says we need to use the money in the business.

b) I need to repay the bank, and the bank is objecting to the investing before the loan is repaid

c) I get a better return on my own business

d) Equity markets are too risky – and mutual funds are risky.

Learn to find out how much is true and how much is false…….after all wives should be good at that!

If you are just a girl friend and want to know how much is he earning, file an RTI…and get a copy of his Income Tax Return copy from the department!! LOL