Warning as a “selfish” husband about to blow half his inheritance on Bitcoin

A man’s plan to spend half his inheritance on cryptocurrency has come under fire online after his wife raged about the decision.

The wife took to popular forum Mumsnet to get opinions on her situation, after a row over how her husband should spend a £15,000 ($17,600) inheritance.

Arguments about money are far from rare. In fact, according to research from Ramsey Solutions, money is the number one thing couples argue about.

The problem does not only affect those who have tied the knot. A survey by financial website Cashlorette found that 48 percent of Americans in a serious relationship argue about finances.

This woman inherited £15,000 between her marriages and her husband received the lump sum from his late aunt. They are financially comfortable but “not loaded” and have a “huge” mortgage.

“My husband wants to put the entire amount into Bitcoin,” she wrote. “He has reluctantly agreed to only put half into Bitcoin and the other half into our joint ISA.”

“For reference, I’m the breadwinner by a country mile and we share our entire income. I never question this, so it now feels unfair that his money is ‘his’ money when for a long time I’ve made much more and everything has been divided money.”

“Am I unreasonable to think this is selfish?” she asked.

Like the wife, Mumsnet users were angry with the husband for his choices about where to invest their money.

“How completely selfish of him,” wrote one user. “You’ve been sharing finances all this time and then he decides the inheritance is his to choose what to do with. If my DH did this it would change how I felt about him.”

Another wrote: “I would just be horrified that he sees it as his money and not shared, especially since you are the high earner and share it. Would make me rethink my finances and wouldn’t bother counseling you with him about anything you want to buy in the future.”

“He’s shown you how he really feels about what’s his now. Then act by starting to keep a percentage of your salary for yourself,” another user said. “Horrible to find out how he would put himself first before his family.”

For others, however, the situation was not so black and white, citing that inheritance money should not be treated in the same way as a salary should.

“I don’t think it’s relevant who the ‘provider’ is and I think using that in your argument is ad*ck move,” one person argued. “I think inheritance should be treated differently than regular money. If his aunt wanted it to be left to the family, she would have.”

“I believe inheritance belongs 100% to the person who inherited it, and their wife/husband has no say over it, nor should they accuse them of “being selfish” if they don’t want to use it like the husband/wife think they should”, agreed another.

“It doesn’t matter that you are the breadwinner and have contributed more, you earn more, so of course your contribution is higher. He is not indebted to you because he earns less than you,” they added.

“Having said that, I think Bitcoin is risky, but it is at a low level at the moment and many are hoping for a repeat of the rise from 2018 to 2021. But as you say, you can afford him to lose all the money if it goes the other way. So, I’d just let him as it’s his inheritance and £15k isn’t that much anyway. It’s not a life changing sum that would make or break your retirement years. If he had bought a motorbike , I want to spend as much..so I say keep your beak out.”

One Bitcoin is currently worth around $22,000. In November 2021, it reached a record high of $68,000 and approached $50,000 in March 2022, but fell sharply in June.

Newsweek was unable to verify the details of the case.