I really appreciate your taking the time to reply and to offer me sound advice.
Indeed, I have been gambling for years, but probably for close to 20 of those years I never even thought I had a problem..or at least one that I could not control. Consequently, I also then never considered turing over my finances to another person.
The times that I would be lucky enough to win at the race track or casino I would just keep all of the money in my wallet. I never was really interested in buying anything (at least for myself) becasue in the back of my mind I wanted to have more money available when I would soon be returning
to gamble.
All these things that “smart” people would do in this situation such as putting the money in your bank account, paying off any pending bills or expenses early, making some improvements to your home or fixing up your car, going shopping or taking a mini vacation…I would never do.
So like a sucker, I go back to gamble and of course there will come a time when my luck runs out (there ALWAYS comes this time lol). What do I do as CG? Naturally instead of walking out with most of the money still in my pocket, I CHASE even the smallest loss and then CHASE some more and continue to CHASE and CHASE until my wallet is empty.
As hard to believe as it may seem, I have only recently realized the importance of keeping large sums of money out of my possession. I am clearly a STUPID & SLOW guy.
The thought I use to motivate myself (to help make it easier to turn over money to my wife without having any doubts or fear) is that it is better to throw my wallet out into the street rather than for me to follow my same behavior of squandering the funds gambling. Most likely, the person who finds my wallet will put the money to better use than I would. When I think about it in this light, I am now running to give the money to my wife lol. Even if she would spend the money foolishly at the mall or someplace elese (which I am pretty confident that she would not do), it again is still better than what I would do.
I have enjoyed at times over the years and this was all about ME and my WANTS and DESIRES. I think it is time for me to SACRIFICE (but ultimately this should not considered a sacrifice, but rather a CHANGE) and PRIORITIZE my wife and family and taking care of their needs and making them happy.