<prompt> Human: Obligatory throw away. Hi all - Im submitting this question on behalf of my mother. She is 56 and my step dad is 61 - despite being w him for the past 20 years or something she just now is realizing he is completely incompetent with money. Last year they took a 10-15k trip to Europe which he assured her they were fully capable of paying for; also one the year before at the same price; then,the year before, he bought a 15k boat paying marina 380 a month for storage, and on top of that, he consistently has some kind of hobby project going on in the garage which consistently soaks up large uncounted sums of money. Anyway, as of right now, they have about 50k in credit card debt, 5k owned on a new air conditioner, 6k on my lil bros braces, probably around 13k on a car, and lots of other misc. debts which all in all suppose add up to somewhere around 75k. They also have a mortgage on on a 175k house which they have been paying about 1800 a month for the past 14 years. The partially good news is that my dad gets a 6000k pension a month, and my mom has a side business on Etsy that brings in anywhere between 1.5-2.5k a month. Right now, they are kinda able to keep everything covered, but obviously not saving. My step dad still somehow thinks that despite their debt they are entitled to more vacations and fun Ive been suggesting selling the boat for a long time to no avail. Anyway - right now my mom is looking to to somehow separate her finances from him so she at least is able to save something for retirement - and for the case where he passes away early as she would not be receiving his full pension. What is the best way to go about doing this. Sorry for all the info which may be unnecessary, but I need to vent as I am unwittingly entangled in all thistl;dr - how does a married woman in her 50s separate finances from her husband so that he is not able to touch any of her savings, and to stop him from spending into oblivion.  <response>: This is a lot more of an rrelationships issue. If there finances havent been separate until this point, shes just as responsible for a lot of that debt as he is. Hes got a ridiculous monthly pension so at the least they can start over now but itll take work. She needs to start her own savings accounts and get that debt under control. 