Retirement Illiterate Spouse
Does anyone have retirement for dummy videos I can seed into my spouses YouTube algorithm?
Slightly hyperbolic, but I am looking for advice on how to explain to my wife she needs to help contribute more. She believes that between her and my parents we will have our retirement set. While she may be right, I do not want to rely on that as they age and medical expense become unpredictable.
Her mom poisoned her outlook on setting up a 403b (public school teachers), and it took a year after marriage for me to get her to open and contribute the bare minimum. Her father, smart finance guy, says he tried to get her setup when she started teaching but gave up after years of refusal.
I max out my 401k. I make out my Roth. I put a health amount into our brokerage fund annually and a little each month for our child’s utma. The bills, mortgage, and rainy day fund are more than covered with the remainder.
Our finances are mostly combined; she has one old savings account with a few grand. She wants to keep it separate but she gave me her login so I can see what she does with it though I haven’t checked in years; there is no money going to it. Her login also allowed me to see her parents and sisters account balances which made me feel weird.
I just want her to see this as important to do now in our thirties. I could open a Roth for her since I have the needed info but I want her to be on board.
Posted Dec 21, 2025, 4:36 PM UTC