Opinion on Telling the Income In House

Pollycat

Baldytyke88 said:

Pollycat said:

+1 to this ^^^.

Learning about saving, paying tax, using credit cards, living within your means, setting up a pension can all be taught without the need to tell your children how much you earn.

In several Nordic countries, including Sweden, Norway, and Finland, individual taxable income (which forms the basis of one's pay) is considered public information.

The old-fashioned view about keeping things secret can lead to distrust between partners and tax/benefit fraud/evasion. We know how much MPs and Councillor earn, everyone should be open and honest.

But we're in the UK.
Not in Sweden, Norway or Finland.

Pollycat said:

A somewhat odd (and ambiguous) question.

The only person who knows what my salary was and my pension income is is my husband.

Why would children or ny other family member need to know?

I guess you must have missed my earlier post ^^^^.
No distrust in my relationship.

And no tax/benefit fraud/evasion either.
We both pay PAYE tax on our income and do not claim any benefits.

It may be an old-fashioned view but it's my view.
And my information to share with whom I wish to.

elsien

I never had a clue what my parents earned. It wasn’t a secret, I just never thought to ask.

Grumpy_chap

I think the sharing of how much you earn with children might be something that has to vary through different life stages.

As we are growing older, and our parents more so, we are asked to support our parents with their financial decisions.  All our parents are confidential about what they have as income.

In the case of my Mum and my Father-in-Law, we can support them easily as we know they have "enough" so support is really just a case, if asked, of reviewing a quote and advising whether the price is fair in 2025.

However, in the case of my MiL, she keeps everything secret but pleads poverty, to a point that towards the end of last year she had us believe she had less in savings than one household emergency would wipe out (she is a houseowner).  Then, she had some knee trouble and suggested she would just pay privately for an operation because she has savings and she can use them.  That type of secrecy makes it virtually impossible for us to support her with decisions when asked.