Your hunting money

[Zerk]

I am not against prenups. Having seperate money can be dangerous thing maybe. You are supposed to be in union. Financial infidelity is not good for a relationship either.

Hopefully the wife is financial literate enough, and knows the accounts and how to pay bills if something happens you. I suspect this comment will tick some guys off. Where they will boast of their wife. So spare, I don't care.

 

[HuntHarder]

My soon to be wife and I have separate and plan to keep separate finances. Problem solved.

Going on 19 years doing it this way. I make about 80% of the household income and pay 90% of the monthly expenses. We both have no debt except our house which we are down below 90k owed on. She never asks me why I bought something and I never ask her. I could care less how much money she is able to save and spend. She has no idea how much $$ I have in my account and I really have no idea how much she has. If a large purchase is needed, a simple conversation usually takes place and I end up paying for most of it, if not all of it.

To be fair, she took a 40% pay cut when she stayed home 2 more days a week when we had children. I expect this to continue until the kids get older and are a little more self reliant. I think keeping money separate allows one to still have some independence. My buddy's who have joint accounts seem to get in a money fight or "have to ask for permission" over purchases. I am lucky to have a profession where I can pretty much write my own paychecks, just gotta answer the phone and go into work.

Long winded, but we have 2 accounts for each kid set up for college/ future. We both contribute, with me currently contributing more. I max contribute to my retirement accounts and ask her to do the same. My goal is to be able to quit working by 50 ( i am 38 ) and have multiple retirements to hopefully live off of. Never a bad idea to sit down with a couple different financial planners and find one that suits your guys's needs.

 

[bbell]

Money was never an issue with my wife until I found Rokslide.
I’ve got most of my gear sorted now and haven’t really bought much last few years. Rather spend it actually hunting and not gear to go hunting

 

[Northpark]

I make 100% of our household income. She takes care of our two kiddos. We have a main joint account where all our expenses and family spending come out of. We each have a separate account and put $300/month into them. I spend more than her mostly on hunting or shooting gear or components. Hunting trips mostly come out of joint account because I basically never really trophy hunt and it’s more about meat and adventure so she looks at hunting like expensive high quality groceries. We don’t buy meat at the store.

 

[Silveroddo]

Every time we're going down the road and I see the Dually pulling the giant horse trailer I thank my wife for not being into horses.
Guy I know figures his wifes horse habit costs him $50k a year, their kids compete. He asks her what the end game is with it all. "The might get a scholarship or something" she says.
His response to it all is "At least its not as bad as this other guy, that ones way over $100k/ year"

 

[roosiebull]

Have you ever looked at the cost all the stuff you bought for hunting (like shelters, bows, guns, packs, boots, optics, electronics, clothing & boots, your pack(s) and everything in it, vehicle(s), travel, licenses, applications and tags, taxidermy, your entire investment in the pursuit of wild game meat?

If you have, treat it like Hillary's private server emails. If you're married use the delete button till that info is all gone. Trust an old man on this.

View attachment 491616

I can’t get anything by my wife, she knows what things cost. She probably has a better idea of my full investment than I do. Luckily she is pretty easy on me and lets me get what I want as long as it’s not putting any strain on us.

I can literally order something online and she will mention it before day’s end, but like I said, she doesn’t hassle me about it.

I will say, since I have gotten her more involved in fishing and hunting, it’s gotten even easier, it gave her perspective on good gear, and she understands how much actual time I’m using the stuff

The first few years we were together she couldn’t fathom why a fishing rod could cost 500+$ or binos costing over 2k, or hunting pants over 200$ when she knows I don’t like buying 50$ regular pants (hard for me to justify) unless they are specific for a need

I literally have no clue on what I have costs, and don’t want to… I would bet good money my wife’s guess would be much closer than mine, but I’m ok with that.

 

[Elite7]

Joint account here as well. Started the first few years as separate but things got a a lot harder once kids came along. Seems like we moved to what most of you figured out. We have a set monthly budget for misc and it doesn’t really matter what it’s spend on. She knows if my budgeted misc money is growing that means I’m buying something big. It also helps that she hunts about as much as I do now

 

[packer58]

Enough said .......

 

[jacknifejc]

I told my wife that she is worth $200/lb venison. She’s worth more than $50/lb lobster. I spend the money on hunting to provide the best for her.

 

[Elkdreamer]

I never add it up. If I did I`m sure that elk last season was about 10k per pound.

Its my hobby. Can`t put a price on happiness.

 

[PNW bow hunter]

I would hate to add it all up, but the amount of time I spend hunting is probably way above average. For about 10 years I hunted Oregon, and at least one other state each year. After decades of backpack hunting all over, I finally have exactly the setup I like.

After 2019 I’ve cut the expenses WAY down

 

[cs1]

The only expenses i keep track of are applications and tags; that’s mainly so I know what CC to use. I’m not organized enough to track tanks of gas, groceries, etc. I consider that the cost of a good life.
When we got married I already had most everything I needed for regular hunts and I’ll probably never be able to afford a hunt that needs more gear / clothes than I already have.

 

[PNW bow hunter]

I’ve never hid any of it

My wife and I have a joint checking account
we each transfer money to for all household bills.

We have another account we both transfer money to on the first of the month for groceries or going out to eat. We both have a debit card for that.

I’ve been a semi Dave Ramsey saver/budgeting person for a long time. I taught her that well over 15 years ago, and magically she started having extra money each month.

At this point each of us have similar incomes, split everything down the middle, and we both save well over 20 percent of our incomes.

We each started separate college savings plans that come out of our individual account each month for our daughter that was born 2 years ago as well.

We still discuss it all our finances. Every year or two we go over our incomes/bills, and set new budgets and goals.

If the bills are paid, fridge/freezer/pantry is full, college savings account funded, at least 20 percent of our incomes is going into retirement accounts/savings, and other money set aside for family trips we don’t need to bug each other about the rest.

We can pretty much do whatever we want whenever we want, and don’t squabble over money.

This has worked great for us

Money is a HUGE issue with some of my buddies marriages

 

[Pro953]

Really a lot of this marital stress comes from spending beyond you means, and a lack of understanding between you ans your spouse about what your priorities are.

Though my wife and I do run a joint account and keep separate checking so we do not really see what the other spends. I always figure as long as we both fund the joint account as needed it’s not my business what she spends the extra funds on. As soon as a care that she spends 300.00 on a sweater is the moment I need to go in the garage and take a look around. I am sure she can find plenty of things she would think it’s crazy to spend 300.00 on.

I will say we are lucky and have means to play. It was harder starting out when we had less money and spending even 100.00 on binoculars seemed like a luxury. I am also sure it’s much more complicated for single income family’s.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rob5589]

We don't hide anything from one another. We both work hard and are smart with our money. Just know that if you're hiding something from your wife, she's likely hiding something too.

 

[stanginthe11s]

I made arrangements with my fedex and UPS guys to hide anything I get over at the garage lol. my wife tells me all the time that I waste money, but when I say "you don't need 50,000 creams, shampoos etc." she replies with " yes I do and it's my money". when I say the same, I'm told I don't have money it's all hers lol. she just laughs at me when I get caught sneaking boxes.

 

[roadrunner]

Used to spend a lot on hunting when I thought it mattered. Hunting no longer has its place as something that matters as much as I once thought it did.

I have spent a small "fortune" on the kids' hunting as they grew up. Those days have ended and all I need now is one rifle antlerless elk tag every year in early to mid-December and I'm good.

It's never been a me vs. her, anything big was never kept a secret (rifles, hunts, bows, etc.)

 

[Ikmclean]

We divvy up the hunting budget depending on who draws more tags. My wife hunts just as much as I do.

 

[mgray]

I actually kept a list for one year of what hunting/fishing/trapping cost. Unfortunately it was a good year for my taxidermist, but a bad year to keep track of expenses. This reminds me of the guy who’s wife sold all of his hunting gear at a garage sale for what he told her he paid for it.

 

[AZ_Hunter_2000]

Folks are missing a key point: your time and the value your place on it. The premium I place on my time is what I bill clients.

When I did my sheep and grizzly hunt, I kept track of everything. The number of hours exercising, number of hours shooting (including drive times), flight time to/from AK, time off in the field vs time off at the hotel (coming and going), cost of the hunt, roundtrip on the Super Cub, tips, tags, licenses, etc. Not included was taxidermy costs and souvenirs for the family.

That one hunt cost me well over $100K once my time was factored in.

That did not include two Coues hunts in Mexico, one Coues hunt in Arizona, black bear in AZ, and a Nebraska whitetail hunt that same year.