My husband never goes out, and he only reluctantly takes holidays — except if we stay in a cabin in the mountains, and even then he doesn’t see why we should be paying for our mortgage and paying to rent somewhere else too. He has never bought me a single piece of jewelry in my life. However, we both agreed before marrying that a diamond engagement ring was a waste of money.
My husband works in IT and earns $90,000 a year. I am a teacher, and I earn $65,000 a year. We have a comfortable life. We have no children, and our monthly mortgage payment is $1,600. We are about halfway through the lifetime of our loan. We both have retirement accounts, and we are on track to have a comfortable life after we finally retire.
The average U.S. household spends about $3,600 a year eating out — which comes to $300 a month. That’s more than the average annual budget for vacations — which was $2,000 a year before the pandemic — and it could pay for a lot of things, like maybe a gold bracelet, or a cruise from time to time. Imagine your husband on a cruise. He might love it! He might hate it! He would probably hate it.
Some studies have shown that introverts who acted like extroverts boosted their energy and mood and, while a certain amount of performance is required in the workplace to make a good impression with colleagues and managers, climb the corporate ladder and get that promotion and salary hike, it’s also best to allow people to be themselves.