“‘We split everything 50-50’”
That was actress Gabrielle Union discussing how she and her NBA legend husband Dwyane Wade tackle their family’s finances in an interview with Bloomberg.
“It’s weird to say I’m head of household, because in this household, we split everything 50-50,” Union said. “But in the other households that each of us have to support, there’s always this gorilla on your back that is like, ‘You better work! You better work! You want to sleep in? Somebody might not eat.’ And it’s hard. It’s hard to let that go, so I’m working on that.”
Union has been working in Hollywood since the 1990s and has appeared in films including Bad Boys II, Bring It On and 10 Things I Hate About You. She has one daughter with Wade named Kaavia, and is the stepmother to Wade’s three children from his first marriage. Wade played 18 years in the NBA, mostly for the Miami Heat, and accumulated $196 million in basketball earnings.
It’s not clear from Union’s statements if she and Wade have a joint bank account, popular with many married couples, but her comment saying they split everything 50-50 indicates there’s a true partnership when its comes to the couple’s finances.
Joint bank accounts have been linked to lower divorce rates, but the main goal of a shared account is to allow couples to get on the same financial page and create common goals.
Separate accounts can be helpful if a couple meets later in life, and already have engrained financial techniques they use and/or children from prior relationships, MarketWatch’s Leslie Albrecht notes.
From the archives (February 2023): My ex-partner earns 3 times my salary and ‘demanded’ I pay 50% of our daughter’s medical bills. Is that fair?
Union admitted that she still fights anxious thoughts about money, despite having a successful career, and oftentimes battles her scarcity mindset with her finances.
“I have more responsibilities for my money,” she said. “I get nervous. Like, ‘Oh god, that movie didn’t open. Well, what does that mean? Am I going to have enough to hold everybody up?’ … I’m trying to find peace in the journey, not using my anxiety and scarcity mindset to be my engine, which is hard.”
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