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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

to secretly have accumulated just over £50K of savings over the last few years?

307 replies

LargeGnTPlease · 27/09/2019 19:03

First time poster here, so please be gentle! so AIBU to secretly have accumulated just over £50K of savings over the last few years? No one knows, not my DH, no one!

OP posts:
nevergotthehangofthursdays · 28/09/2019 09:48

I have a savings account OP. While I'm not a regular saver exactly, I'm lucky enough to get money from DM and don't spend too heavily on my main account (the joint account is DH's earnings which he regards as family and household money and covers all necessities plus a bit). My work earnings are in my separate current account. The thing is, my DH knows about the savings. We use them for holidays and are planning to stash away some for our DCs' living costs at uni.

Not RTFT but I'm wondering what the reason for the secrecy is. Spendthrift/alcoholic/gambling partner? Controlling relationship?

HJWT · 28/09/2019 09:57

So basically @LargeGnTPlease in 10 years you have managed to save 50K and he had probably spent the best part of 50K on shite?!

So whats everyones problem then?

IAmALazyArse · 28/09/2019 10:06

So basically @LargeGnTPlease in 10 years you have managed to save 50K and he had probably spent the best part of 50K on shite?!

Considering OP said some months she actually saved her whole salary, it's safe to assume he pays all the bills and stuff and so has nowhere near the fun or saving money OP has...

C8H10N4O2 · 28/09/2019 10:09

Considering OP said some months she actually saved her whole salary, it's safe to assume he pays all the bills and stuff and so has nowhere near the fun or saving money OP has...

No it isn't. She has stated she manages all the bills etc - its perfectly possibly that she managed to make one month's salary stretch two months depending on her earnings.

If he thinks buying a boat is casual spending then he could easily have spent 50k in 9 years.

GreenTulips · 28/09/2019 10:11

You can definitely see the difference in attitude to money on this thread
Spenders v savers!!

Krisskrosskiss · 28/09/2019 10:16

This is not about 'spenders versus savers' it's about concealing large amounts of money from your spouse and not treating them like an adult who gets to have some say in what happens to the finances. Its massively controlling behaviour. It's fine to save large amounts of money... but not behind someones back using their money too... it's not up to one partner alone to decide what to do with an amount as large as 50 grand. OP should have discussed what she was doing with her partner.

AltheaVestr1t · 28/09/2019 10:17

What are you going to do with it, OP?

TheNamesBond · 28/09/2019 10:18

Get a pension.

PusheenLovesPizza · 28/09/2019 10:35

Well done. Up to a point this is good and sensible.

The places this stops being sensible are:

  1. Are you paying mortgage or loan interest as a family at all? If so, at the first point you’ll pay no early exit penalties ( or even only a penalty that is less than the interest saved), pay those off. Keep a sensible buffer fund, but pay off/pay down. Otherwise you’re just running to stand still.
  2. Is this becoming a compulsion? By this I mean are you making yourself uncomfortable at all (either in practical terms due to the economies, or in psychological terms due to the secrecy) but feel you “have to” anyway. Especially if you think you might be making other people in your family uncomfortable.
  3. Using this to shore up a marriage that’s not working for you in other ways. Can see a way where you could achieve the same object without the secrecy? E.g. your husband listens to you about your money concerns, and either improves his ways or gives you responsibility for most of the money management. If you’ve tried this before but it’s totally failed that’s a bad sign. By the way though, I would count “he listened to me and got better but not as much as I would like” as either a good start or a success- there can be some legitimate difference in how people balance today vs tomorrow financially that is just difference of opinion nothing more serious. But if he just dismissed your concerns or didn’t try, or you didn’t try to discuss it with him, that’s a sign of something deeper and more serious about how communication works in your marriage, or a sign of compulsion in one or both of you, that will manifest itself in other ways.
  4. The amount of money that is secret is starting to be large enough that you could use it to change either your life or your family’s life. As such, it’s maybe time to think whether it’s appropriate to keep it a secret.

But mostly I think you’re sensible.

BarbaraofSeville · 28/09/2019 10:41

But the OP has made it clear that her DH has spending money too. It's just that he spends his and she saves some or all of hers.

In the last 10 years both DP and I have had the same amount of spending money. He has spent every single penny of his, whereas I just naturally spend less so have saved the excess and have accumulated £20k in premium bonds over and above joint savings that I consider to be mine and mine alone.

We also have 3 or 4 foreign holidays each year, eat out a couple of times a month, run nice cars, don't worry about what we spend day to day, just fill the cars up when they are empty etc etc and it's like this more or less because our bills our low, we don't have DCs and I make sure we don't spend every penny we have - our household income is about £60k so above average but not typical Mumsnet megamoney.

Are people really saying that I should hand my savings over to him and say 'go buy another bike love'?

Why is it controlling to save the money and let it amass into a large sum, but perfectly acceptable to just spend it bit by bit? Eg by buying lunch and coffee every working day, hence frittering about £50 per week, £200 per month, £2k per year, £20k in 10 years, which is basically what DP has done, and probably what the OPs DH has done, plus other larger purchases combined with not actively spending in a 'moneysaving' way.

BarbaraofSeville · 28/09/2019 10:43

On your first point pusheen our mortgage rate is lower than our savings rates, so it doesn't make sense for us to pay off/overpay our mortgage.

If things changed, I would look at using joint savings, or even my premium bonds, to pay down the mortgage.

Krisskrosskiss · 28/09/2019 10:52

So it's up to OP alone how much spending money her husband should have and how much to save is it? Why?.....
THEY SHOULD DECIDE THESE THINGS TOGETHER LIKE ADULTS IN A RESOECTFUL RELATIONSHIP

Krisskrosskiss · 28/09/2019 10:56

BarbaraofSeville no one is suggesting that saving is bad or that you should hand over your savings.... your situation is different because you have divided money equally between you and each decided what to do with your part of it, knowing that the other person was deciding what to do with theirs...
This is not what the op has done. Her partner has no idea she has 50 grand of savings and she mentions doing things like taking the profit from his boat which he bought and did up and sold, and placing it in the savings account....
That is not the sane as sitting down together and splitting money in the knowledge one of you might spend theirs and the other might save it

ShastaBeast · 28/09/2019 11:06

I’ve done similar, except it’s not secret. He knows but doesn’t pay attention to what I’m doing or how much or where it all is. And I started this when I was a SAHM so it was all his money!

If DH suddenly admitted doing this (and I had paid attention) I’d probably be pleased if it was for our family eg kids’ education or weddings. But just for him to stop me having access...I’d be pissed off.

C8H10N4O2 · 28/09/2019 11:40

it's about concealing large amounts of money from your spouse and not treating them like an adult

He isn't behaving like an "adult" if being in insecure employment with four DC to consider he goes out buying boats on a whim and doesn't save. OP has stated they both have spending money and a good lifestyle. He isn't being deprived.

One of them needs to think about the DC and the future and it doesn't sound like thhe DH will do it.

Doingtheboxerbeat · 28/09/2019 11:41

I am 100% with the Op on this but I will admit to having a problem with poverty and the lack of security due to knowing sooo many financial enept people.
I have been criticised for having a very small telly by an ex friend who prioritised fake tan and nails over rent then ended up homeless.
I have too many stories and incredibly stupid friends and family such as this and it can turn you into a miserable fuck but a miserable fuck with a roof over your head.

doublebarrellednurse · 28/09/2019 11:42

One of them needs to think about the DC and the future and it doesn't sound like thhe DH will do it.

He doesn't need to does he as no one is involving him

Doingtheboxerbeat · 28/09/2019 11:43

So many typos - sorry.

C8H10N4O2 · 28/09/2019 11:44

He doesn't need to does he as no one is involving him

From the OP description that is effect rather than cause.

Userzzzzz · 28/09/2019 11:52

BarbaraofSeville Yours is different though as you both had equal spending money-
You’ve just chosen to save yours. We did similar (in principle) when we had spending money pots. My husband tended to save up for ages but then buy something big like an ipad and wipe out his spending pot. I tended to buy smaller things more regularly but would never get £0 as I liked to have some spare. At that point, we would have seen our own pots as our own but if one of us had got to £20k like you I’m not sure what we’d have done. Logically, the same principle should apply whether it’s £500 or £20k but it feels a bit different when the amount is so large. I admire your will power!

As an aside, I did notice when we moved away from having our own spending pots, we started to fritter money away more.

Starlight456 · 28/09/2019 11:52

The thing is if there is 50 grand spare then he can afford to go out and buy a boat.

You could put it in a 90 day access account so it won’t be spent impulsively.

Either way still no idea why you are posting

Thatsenoughjuststopit · 28/09/2019 12:00

I agree with pp who say it's the secrecy that us the big issue op, I do the same as you op except I haven't kept it secret. My hubby thinks I'm a bit on the tight side but he knows exactly what has been saved and where it is.
It's still our money and I think to Syphon it and keep it secret is deceitful and wrong.

boptist · 28/09/2019 12:01

It sounds like you don't trust your DH with money op and the story of the boat shows why.

But it’s money to spend as he chooses, we’ll, if someone hadn’t taken it. This isn’t a case of him spending the last tenner down at the bookies.

boptist · 28/09/2019 12:04

Can you imagine the response,

“I have just found out that my husband has been putting money in to a secret account. Sometimes it’s been his entire monthly salary and my salary has gone on the bills and food. I know what he’ll say - that I waste money on my nails and spa breaks and he’s just being responsible for our future”.

LizzyDarcy1 · 28/09/2019 12:33

I think it's awful to keep something like this a secret from your spouse. It's a huge amount of money to hide away, siphoned out of family money.

If OP and her DH worked out finances between them so that they each took the same personal spending money each month, and the £50k was from her saving hers, then I wouldn't think it was quite so bad, although still unreasonable and odd to hide it.

OP's posts all seem to indicate that she's been able to save parts or all of her salary over the years where his is paying the bills, therefore it's come from the family pot and is morally equally his (as well as legally).

I don't think buying the boat is so bad either, if you could afford it. Yes it is frivolous, but if you have money then why not enjoy it every now and then? And he sold it in the end anyway.

Apologies if I've missed it OP, but what do you plan to do with the money anyway?

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