I was the stay at home dad after our first son was born, before that I had worked for 15 years since High School. At that time it made sense as she was making a lot more money than me and the cost of full time daycare was expensive. I worked on the cars, the houses; ripped up carpets and put in hardwood, all the yard work, snow shoveling, meals, lunches, painting, baby feeding in the night, volunteering at school, field trips, brought her breakfast in bed every day since I quit working in 88, yes every day. I wasn’t drinking and watching cartoons. See I said I’d make myself sound better than I am. I bring this up as all of sudden she was concerned about money and would yell, “Get a job--Get a job” Now I know you’re thinking well the kids are grow up (my youngest just turned 18) why don’t you?
For one I’m almost 61 with a GED and we don’t need the money. Around 1999 we won second place in the Lottery, not as much as you’d think but enough to pay off our house, buy a new car and have money in the bank. Soon thereafter my parents died within a year or so of each other and I inherited their estate. More money than if I had saved every dime during my working career so I wasn’t worried about it. Since I was a teenager I was interested in investing and had learned over the years how to trade and invest. So I invested in the stock market and bought a rental house. She wanted to put the money in a mattress, not kidding her words. So with all the studying and stress it takes to invest and raising a family I thought I was doing my part. Like trading isn’t a real job and I hadn’t contributed to the marriage that really cut me deep. I guess this is the part where they don’t respect you but I was able to double our money where she would have lost the value of it in a savings account. Somehow this all morphed into her money and she had saved all this and I am a bum. I pointed out to her that even if she saved everything from her salary and never paid any taxes or bought any food etc. that it still wouldn’t amount to the assets we had so that it would have been impossible. I just got the blank MLC stare and then back to being a POS.
