When my brother was married, he was allowed to take US$60 out of the ATM on Fridays. He’s since divorced from her. Needless to say, the rest of our family is happy about that.
This was in the States and his ex-wife is not AZN. But she seems to have a type; Brother is mixed Eurasian and she’s since married a Korean guy in California (ABK?).
NT$200 for lunch actually isn’t that bad. I’ve heard of guys getting just $100.
If I spent 200 bucks on lunch, I’d get my ass kicked.
Why do you think I skip lunch altogether?
There might be a reason for this, i.e., drinking and gambling. In a lot of Asian countries, men have a reputation for being shit with money. It’s possible some of them recognise that they’re shit with money and accept their wives’ control over the finances for the good of the family. And it does seem to have worked out reasonably well for, say, China and Taiwan. Financial irresponsibility is quite rare here compared to, say, most of S.E. Asia.
Just a possibility.
Brother is not a gambler, aside from the few trips we’ve taken to Vegas. He does enjoy the occasional tasty adult beverage.
They divorced several years ago and he still has the house/hasn’t filed for bankruptcy.
I meant in general terms. The cultural evolution of Chinese women taking control of the husband’s money. Not that particular instance. Obviously there are cases where the woman is a bit nuts and the man is a bit of a … well, whatever word you want to use.
My apologies, I should explain that “not AZN” means not Chinese. In other words, she is very white. Midwestern USA white.
Depending on where you live you can get a bian dang for NT$65 (less in the south), so $200 is like winning the lottery for that guy.
Financial responsibility is one thing I’m grateful to Taiwan for teaching me. Unfortunately this trait doesn’t seem to have been passed on to Taiwan’s millennials. So many are living paycheck to paycheck and seem to have given up planning for the future completely.
That’s true. The younger generation are a lot more careless with money than their parents were - possibly because their parents’ savings have provided them will all the safety nets they need to be irresponsible.
Yeah, even in Taipei you can still get a nutritious and filling biandang for peanuts. The only problem is the mystery oil. It seems like that guy was more bothered by the loss of face than getting enough to eat.
My biggest regret in life, bar none, was not saving more money in high school in college. If/when I have kids, I’m forcing them to save a percentage of their wages and telling them they’ll thank me later in life.
Since this habit is rarely heard or seen in the states, I asked the gf why. She did hint that in our parents generation, the man only had to worry about making the money, not how to manage it. Both her and my parents have this kind of relationship.
However, with the new generation of couples, she theorizes that if the male does not have any money, he can’t be up to no good. Example she gave me was, guy’s colleagues want to head to the dinner and then KTV. Nope, got 200NT this morning and only 20NT left. To save face, he won’t allow friends/colleagues to always cover his tab.
I remember posting about this before, but the PX Mart owner came out and publically scolded the millennials to stop complaining about wages because he sees everyone with iPhones in their hands matched with Adidas Ultra Boosts.
Netizens/millienials fought back by saying, “yes, these items are expensive, but we buy these things to keep ourselves sane and to not worry about our future”
When the wife is doing the receipts lottery…strange you didn’t have the lunch receipts…
Oh .,
i stopped eating biandangs years ago, way too greasy and yes the oil is suspect.
She doesn’t actually hold the purse strings…only the strings to my heart. 
The money management thing is usually because money is tight for a lot of folks. Obviously some of them don’t trust the husbands either.
Millenials are in a tough spot in Taiwan (and many developed countries) unless they inherit their folks money (not only millenials but at least the two previous generations to them as well)!!
Only rich Taiwanese people I know all inherited their money here or used the family’s substantial backing for their businesses. From SMEs to publically listed companies their families already had serious cash.
Housing prices tripled in Taipei in just the last 10 years. Food has seen significant inflation also.
[quote=“Brianjones, post:59, topic:160769, full:true”]
The money management thing is usually because money is tight for a lot of folks. Obviously some of them don’t trust the husbands either.[/quote]
Hey, those smokes, beers, spicy girls, gambling games, and betel nuts aren’t going to buy themselves!
Zhu Ge Liang is like the poster boy of the irresponsible Tai ke husband. 