My wife and I are both the same age as you (44). Ever since we got married which was 23 years ago we’ve had completely joint finances. We trust each other and are both frugal by nature so it works. We have no rules per se but out of courtesy we’d generally give the other person a heads up on any bigger discretionary expenses regardless of type. Any major expense like a vacation, home remodel or vehicle would be discussed in advance. In terms of roles we used to both work but since we had our oldest who is 13 now she’s been a stay at home mom and I’ve been the income source.

It’s just anecdotal so it doesn’t mean much but in my own life I know several folks personally who were severely impacted by Covid. I don’t know anyone who was vaccinated that experienced more than about day of mild symptoms, at most. With some of this social media stuff you just need to get off it and see what’s happening around you in your community. I’m not saying nobody died or had some kind of severe reaction, I just think it’s a really small percentage. I think to date there have been close to 15 billion Covid vaccine doses administered. You couldn’t give out 15 billion chocolate chip cookies without some adverse results.

Obesity is probably the second biggest risk factor after age. This is just restating that known fact.