Sounds like someone needs to put their big boy pants on, and put a stop to this..
Some get into trouble because, they spend what others think they make.. Others have wifes that spend to try to keep up with the Jones'..Some let their wifes do as they please, and their wifes spend them into bankruptcy
I have a guy I work with in a similar situation, his wife doesn't work, has a teaching degree from a major university, quit a good state job years ago for some unknown reason, he let her do it. He has an MBA but works in mid level staff job doing final system testing and paper work (although all actually done in the system). The wife is a hoarder and has a spending compulsion too, so junk that goes in the house never leaves. He's never had anyone from work over to his place, the garage is so full of "stuff" that they can't get either car in it. Another guy at work took him home one time and saw the garage door up.
He doesn't have cable TV since he said that she would be buying from the home shopping channels, no internet since she would do the same. In fact the guy has no modern gadgets in the house except one small flat screen TV with an antenna and an old pre-paid cell phone that she carries. They never go anywhere except visit her cousins widow on the farm up north about once a year. He has no family, she just has a sister, but she's retarded and lives in a group home. He does walk the dog in a dog park or around the neighborhood, which is an island in a high crime, and getting worse, area of town. They don't eat at home as he says there's nothing in the house. He does have some money he got from selling his mother's small Florida house and a condo up here when she passed. He tried to hide it from her but couldn't due to bank requirements, so he says. She has the credit card maxed out again he told us a couple of months ago, it was paid off about 6-9 months ago. He just used some of his cash to buy a fancy new Toyota SUV and his house is paid off. He does have some money in the company 401k and will get a company pension and SS, but she has absolutely nothing, since she never worked long enough to even qualify for SS. He's scared to death to retire, even though he turns 65 this year and desperately wants to go, in fact if it wasn't for his wife not working he said he would have been gone a couple of years ago. He wants to be sure she has something to live on once he passes, his health isn't good and going down hill, he doesn't think he'll make 70, the men in his family all died in their early 60s. If he would retire now he'd have to buy an Obamacare health policy for her until she turns 65, about a year after him, so he stays on here covering her on the company policy until she can get Medicare. That will put him around 66 + yrs. old. She also a bit of a hypochondriac so any health issues could really hurt him, given the high deductible requirements of the government polices.
He said he looked in to a divorce a few years back but the attorney said he'd lose half of everything he's earned or put aside, since she had nothing (not other assets) to offset anything, so he stays and puts up with it. He's mentioned to her getting help for her "issues" but she doesn't think there is any problem and goes crazy when he suggests it, so he stopped doing that. I kinda feel sorry for him but he's made this bed and won't do anything to even attempt to correct any of the issues in his control. We go back in forth among a couple of us what we would do in his situation, but knowing he won't do anything for himself. I don't think he even has a pair of big boy pants to deal with her.
