There were red flags, but I didn't know the extent of bad debts, collections and shot credit my wife brought to our marriage. When I found out, we had a heart-to-heart, created a credit repair plan and worked through it diligently. I settled a bunch of her debts with my cash and created a repayment plan for the rest for her that I kept a close eye on. I helped her create a mint account and create and track monthly budgets.
It all worked, she was very good with it, even saved up some savings of her own, her credit improved to mid 700s and then I trusted her enough to stopped looking.
Fast forward to a few months ago, I noticed she received a credit card bill to the tune of $15K. I confronted her about it and she assured me that she's aware and in control and will have it paid down in a couple of months. Yesterday I found out her fresh new credit score allowed her to open several credit lines totalling $50k and is now close to maxing them all out.
Now I'm not looking for relationship advice, I'm more than willing to work with my wife if she lets me in again, to get us back on track. My question is, what can I do to prevent this from happening again in the future? What measures can I take to protect our and my assets and my kid's future if my worst fears are realized?
Edit: Really wanted to keep relationship advice out of this post, but obviously its very closely intertwined with the issue at hand. There are a lot of responses about that, just want to address them together: I see this as an addiction - not all that different from say an opioid addiction. I refuse to entertain divorce as a fix, at the very first relapse. It may be the only choice somewhere down the line, but not today. I'm beginning to realize that taking Divorce off the table also means I'm forgoing any real financial protections.
I'm willing to get her (and me) outside help and support her in getting to a better state. I definitely want to stop being an enabler once and for all though, and that's what this post was about. As soon as I can get her to admit she has a problem and we get on the same page about working through this, I'll start putting a bunch of advice from the responses into action - mainly around limiting her access to credit. Thanks Folks!
Submitted December 12, 2017 at 08:58PM by pfthrowaway098999 http://ift.tt/2C8f5YD
