Madame suspects...

laurentyvan

As I was working on coins the other day, my sweet wife sat down beside me, and with an affectionate arm on my shoulder asked me how much I had invested in my coins so far. Why, I asked? Well, if you pass suddenly, she murmured demurely, I need to know what they're worth. This, to me, was a very loaded question which I tip toed around. Do you share this information with your better halves?
Is this not the first step towards disaster?

ajaan

<< <i>Do you share this information with your better halves? >>


No. And please don't tell her I have better halves.

1jester

So far I don't have a better half.... but I regret the day I have an unsupportive one.

It would seem to me that they would appreciate judicious allocation of your spending money.... But there's no telling if they'd want you to tap into it to buy something meaningless, like a vacation, for instance, or a new car...

boiler78

Laurent- Just tell her there is a detailed letter of instruction in your safe deposit box (hopefully thats true) and she doesn't have to worry about a thing. I bought the Rogat piefort that you put me on to last week. Thanks again for the heads up.

elverno

Hm... It's a good question. I get the feeling that many of you spend on a much larger scale than I. Yet I can remember living on my current collecting budget not that many years ago...

In our case my wife has no real idea of the total value of my collection; though I suspect the issue is about to come up. That's because she asked me recently if I thought my collection was properly insured. I told her "probably not for what it's worth", and she got one of those looks. Did Oprah do a show on us or something?

cacheman

Quite honestly, my wife doesn't worry what I do regarding coin collecting. I have tried to talk to her to explain what she would acquire in the event of my untimely death but she would rather not talk about such subjects. I have been successful in at least getting her to understand that the nastier looking coins are the most expensive not the pretty white ones. I haven't gotten a letter written but she is aware of a few trusted dealers/coin buddies she should contact to assist with the collection. In a nutshell, my wife is wonderful and has never even raised an eyebrow to any of my purchases...she has even suggested that I buy a few things with money she has saved..we'll see about that one...

theboz11

Telling her the value of the coins would in my opinion be a waste of time and probably incorrect. Unless your demise was at the moment of your telling her and she was able to find a willing buyer in very short order for ALL of your inventory, the quoted price would be irrelevent.
A better idea is to educate her to What you Have and how she might go about getting the best price from them should the unthinkable happen. It would also bring her into the world of collecting gently.

tbirde56

I hope she also hasn't recently mentioned increasing the amount of LIFE insurance that you have!
You might turn the question around, tactfully, and ask her how she'd feel or answer if you were to have asked her the same theoretical question.
I agree that a $$ value would be irrelevant except in a vague general kind of way. Tell her a local dealer's probable over the counter offer amount if she brought it all in and asked HIM how much he'd give for it! That'll discourage her (and you).

satootoko

<< <i>I can remember living on my current collecting budget >>

Me too, and that was when the kids were home and going to private schools!

That letter of instruction is with the fellow who will be Trustee of my Family Trust if I go first, and a whole bunch more of it is devoted to my investments than to my ham radios/bicycles/coin collection.