Marital Insurance

I'm a flaming extrovert: I strike up conversations with people waiting in line, with the guy (or gal) in the seat across the aisle on planes or trains, and in general with almost anyone I spend some time with.

The good thing about this is that I find out a lot about people, and much of it is pretty interesting. Last night, I was on the train, and I started talking with the guy across the aisle. He was a fellow extrovert (and, it turns out a law professor at Harvard), so we had plenty to talk about. Thanks to him, I picked a great idea for all you married guys.

This guy (Dave) got married on May29th almost 24 years ago. Since then, he's sent his wife three dozen roses on the 29th of each and every month since then. I asked if he ever forgot, and he responded "no - they do it automatically and just put it on my credit card. Every month they put together a mix of different colors (red, pink, white, etc...)".

Of course, she doesn't know about the auto-delivery part of the process.

This may be one of the best things you can do for the long-term health of your marriage-- make your wife feel special and appreciated every month. And as an aside, they last a couple of weeks, so if you're covered if you screw up for almost half the month - it's pretty hard not to get the benefit of the doubt when there are flowers you recently bought her all over the house.

Think of it as another monthly bill - in your budget it should go under "insurance'.