Solo Stonks or Joint Account?

[smokemon]

@mossdeep

how do people even afford significant others? where does the budget for the PSA 10 WotC go?

Pro tip: Waifu cards

[Dizzle]

@Cerulean

@Dizzle24

My girlfriend said to me once “if you dont buy that (trophy card I wanted) youll never have the opportunity to grab it ever again. Buy it.”

And by golly, she was right. Glad I listened to her, and nothing beats open communication and honesty.

She sounds like a keeper

Oh absolutely! haha. Hell, ive told this story before here but if it werent for her, I wouldnt even be collecting right now. She basically got me back into it all, so for sure shes def a good one lol

[oldtimepoke]

Not only does my wife not know, she threatened to throw away all that cardboard junk I was collecting. That it would spoil the kids… tried to explain my EX collection to her like my deoxys box and she just ignored me and started talking to the kids about dinner…

[gengaranimal]

A joint account for budgeted bills with savings for bigger expenses like vacations, and a separate personal account for both my wife and I. Her account is her business and mine is her business and my business. It’s important she can spend her money on frivolous “treats” for herself like coffees and expensive cosmetics and her 200th pair of shoes without fear of judgement from me. She has always seen my collectibles as money she would spend on other things like vacations, but knows my collecting is part of who I am and my mental health. She knows my things have value, but does not know how much value. Because I don’t hide purchases or my finances from her, she feels secure and has had no reason to pry. However, she has been clear if I ever cheat on her there will be a front yard bonfire of all my video games and she will fire sale the Pokémon cards and anything else as part of her Caribbean Islands tour severance package.

Oh, I’d also recommend selling something from the collection every so often and giving her the cash to spend on whatever she wants. This helps prove you CAN sell things if you want to, she IS more important than your collection, and you’re NOT just throwing money away on children’s toys. Once she sees how you “bought this for $100 and sold it for $500” AND she gets the proceeds, she will stop asking how much you spent on cards and will instead focus of how much money others are willing to pay for your cards.

As long as she’s marriage material and you aren’t a chucklehead, after about 5 years or so she won’t even flinch when the mailbox is chock full of your “nerd stuff” on delivery day. It’s a beautiful thing but you have to be smart about it UNLESS she shares your collecting passion. And if she does, ignore everything I just wrote and ask someone in that boat!

[azulryu]

Started seeing someone back in January and it’s recently become serious. She took to it pretty easily and we even opened a Japanese box together so she could have the experience. She liked it even though it’s noy her thing. She also knows about what I have and it’s relative worth. She’s more excited about when I talk about it because she enjoys when I get excited about things.

[dsteller]

@gengaranimal

A joint account for budgeted bills with savings for bigger expenses like vacations, and a separate personal account for both my wife and I. Her account is her business and mine is her business and my business. It’s important she can spend her money on frivolous “treats” for herself like coffees and expensive cosmetics and her 200th pair of shoes without fear of judgement from me. She has always seen my collectibles as money she would spend on other things like vacations, but knows my collecting is part of who I am and my mental health. She knows my things have value, but does not know how much value. Because I don’t hide purchases or my finances from her, she feels secure and has had no reason to pry. However, she has been clear if I ever cheat on her there will be a front yard bonfire of all my video games and she will fire sale the Pokémon cards and anything else as part of her Caribbean Islands tour severance package.

Oh, I’d also recommend selling something from the collection every so often and giving her the cash to spend on whatever she wants. This helps prove you CAN sell things if you want to, she IS more important than your collection, and you’re NOT just throwing money away on children’s toys. Once she sees how you “bought this for $100 and sold it for $500” AND she gets the proceeds, she will stop asking how much you spent on cards and will instead focus of how much money others are willing to pay for your cards.

As long as she’s marriage material and you aren’t a chucklehead, after about 5 years or so she won’t even flinch when the mailbox is chock full of your “nerd stuff” on delivery day. It’s a beautiful thing but you have to be smart about it UNLESS she shares your collecting passion. And if she does, ignore everything I just wrote and ask someone in that boat!

I love your point about these collectables being part of mental health… I personally am coming off of a really bad day and sympathized deeply with that comment. My girlfriend encourages me to dive into pokemon, whether purchasing or researching or selling, when I have a bad day because she knows that it helps my mental health. In that way, there is no value to the collection.

Like you said, the “proof in selling” point is potent here. I’ve done it in person, but never online before recently. I can attest to the “disbelief,” not from my girlfriend, but also my family. It’s nice having someone who has faith and believes in you.

In my eyes, if my SO isn’t doing that, there needs to be a serious conversation. When it comes to responsibility on spending however, that’s where your joint account idea is king. I liked that a lot, complete transparency in the ink, while separating the needed funds from the fun funds. Great post!

[sandmantheenless]

It’s always better to be honestly after you know things are serious. Same goes for familial wealth. In both cases, getting a prenup is best, always less messy, but a near must if the other person is not in the same bracket as you.

[xileets]

@smokemon

@muk

I literally haven’t been asked about the value of my collection even once by anyone inside my social circle. They simply don’t care and that’s fine. I won’t rub it in to anyone unaskedly.

That’s interesting, I always get the opposite. And that’s usually followed up with, “why don’t you sell it?”

Yeah, it’s a mix with my friends. None of them know how much, but some know more than others. usually it’s the ones who are more financially-minded themselves, and that includes potential significant others.

[acebren]

@smokemon

@muk

I literally haven’t been asked about the value of my collection even once by anyone inside my social circle. They simply don’t care and that’s fine. I won’t rub it in to anyone unaskedly.

That’s interesting, I always get the opposite. And that’s usually followed up with, “why don’t you sell it?”

I’ve got bad news for you bud

[magikarpflail]

@pichufan

I think ultimately it’s going to be situational. I didn’t trust my ex with money whereas I fully trust my fiancée - it probably helps as well that she earns almost as much as I do each year and Pokémon isn’t a large percentage of our collective wealth.

This is me as well, my ex did not understand the concept of holding onto cards / boxes that have value and would have had me sell all my collection and take her on holiday…

Thankfully my wife is much more understanding and actually encourages my collecting, like a lot of you she can see that I get enjoyment out of it. Moreover I enjoyed sharing it with her (even if she isn’t into it), because now it is an open forum for me to share one of my passions with my two little girls as they grow up. At the end of the day isn’t that what’s it’s all about, sharing your passions with people you care about?! (be that friends or family)

[geg89]

@smokemon

@muk

I literally haven’t been asked about the value of my collection even once by anyone inside my social circle. They simply don’t care and that’s fine. I won’t rub it in to anyone unaskedly.

That’s interesting, I always get the opposite. And that’s usually followed up with, “why don’t you sell it?”

Ha Yea a guy at work asked me about my cards and I mentioned 1, his response was “why dont you sell it!!?” I said no I dont want to, he said “but why? get the money”. You wouldnt understand I joked

[shadowless]

Let sleeping dogs lie

[salaryyy]

Me and my girlfriend both got back into Pokemon together. It’s interesting seeing her perspective growing up in Japan - she never collected the cards but had a lot of merch and random Pokemon things. We buy and open modern stuff together, and she has her own mini-collection of vintage cards that she likes!
We’re both pretty open about finances and about how much we pay for things.

[kurtosisblakeinfini]

trust no one

(at the very least)

[david]

I started collecting after being married, but I had significant assets before getting married and I went through a similar decision-making process.

What it comes down to for me, ultimately, is that when you are married you are a single unit. There is no good way to have truly “individual” finances. Say your spouse’s car breaks down or there’s an unexpected medical bill. Do you think it would be healthy for your marriage to let them go broke and bear that burden alone? For better or worse, all your assets are intertwined and all your financial decisions need to be made jointly because they will impact both of you jointly.

If you’re not married, though, definitely keep things separate.

[nish]

Ah so what you want to do is hide everything you buy from your partner for as long as possible including what you’re buying and how much you’re spending. Then when it eventually reaches a head and you’re confronted about it you turn it on them and blame them for not trusting you.

Trust me I watched Dr. Phil and Steve Harvey once

[assassin5757]

My wife doesn’t mind but I operate on a limited budget so it’s not like I’m crippling our lifestyle. The only thing we collide heads on is that she believes waifu cards are “dirty”. Not Pokemon since the intended audience is family and kids so the illustrations are tame but more so Yugioh and Weiss Schwarz (or most anime things). She likes Pokemon Go and knows most of the Pokemon just from that game, but other than that our hobbies are pretty much separated outside of vacations and such.

As for my collection being valued in the mid 5 digits these days I just tell her that if I sell now just for the money and I want to buy them back in the future the cards could very well cost more. I don’t have any super expensive chase cards (more like 100+ graded cards that are 200-300$ each with a few outliers), thus to see those gains I’d have to sell most of my collection.

[dragonwarrior]

Joint account. Otherwise you’ll be single stonking everything else in your life.

[millenniumnostalgia]

My wife’s boyfriend knows

[celestialdragon]

I live paycheck to paycheck and my gf knows this, because she understands my investments in Pokemon and Weiss will pay off.