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17 comments

[–] Butler_crosley 2 points (+2|-0)

We put it in our prenuptial agreement that I'm not responsible for her student loans.

[–] [Deleted] 5 points (+5|-0)

If you're going to take the risk of getting married this type of stuff should absolutely be talked about beforehand so everyone's expectations is clear.

[–] jobes 3 points (+3|-0)

My brother just left his fiancé because of pretty much this. She refused to tell him how much debt she was in - both with student debt and credit card debt, so he had no idea what he was getting into. She was making him pay 100% of the rent and bills, even though she works full time. I'm glad he came to his senses and realized she was financially taking advantage of him.

[–] CDanger 2 points (+2|-0) Edited

Close call. The risk and damage done increases probably 100x if he had let that go ahead just a bit and gotten the government involved in their relationship. That's unfortunately easy to happen when your dick is doing the thinking for you and you have a bunch of well-meaning traditional boomers giving you 19th century advice. Being elders, they really should know better having lots of "life experience" but you can forgive them because most people are just phuking dumb.

This is why boomer advice about "go get married and have kids" is so dangerous to naive, young, horny kids. It really depends on the situation. If you get a good partner, it will be a huge force multiplier, and you'll do things you never could have alone. If you get a bad partner, holy shit are you in trouble. The damage could be comparable to spending a year or two in jail.

The correct advice should be to focus on yourself, your skills, and building useful things. You'll have something of value to bring to the relationship. When you have value, similarly valuable partners who have their shit together will want to be with you. None of this "just be you" or "follow your passion" bullshit advice either. No, challenge yourself to improve and build yourself up. The rest will (mostly) take care of itself. It doesn't have to be specific either: you might learn about woodworking, accounting, sewing, study physics, welding, start a business, hell even cliche "useless" things like philosophy and literature, etc. Build a variety of skills and invest in yourself. Just don't be a worthless gaming basement dweller (for the guys) or e-thot (for those who identify as female lol). This advice works for both men and women.

I don't know man, life is so simple and yet probably 60% of people seem to mess it up so much.

[–] [Deleted] 1 points (+1|-0)

Good he finally wised up. Sounds like he dodged a bullet.

[–] CDanger 1 points (+1|-0)

It's a really interesting concept because good communication and understanding between partners really does make or break a marriage. Simply the act of going through the exercise and discussing the terms of creating a prenup even if it weren't legally enforceable (which they usually actually are), might solve a lot of problems. Successful couples do this kind of stuff automatically and more or less instinctively. Dysfunctional couples fail not only at this but pretty much all other similar things.

But I'm not sure actually suggesting this as a policy would help much--people that are good at communication already discuss these kinds of things anyway, and those who don't bother are going to have lots of similar failings and miss lots of other "obvious" things like this. You can teach people these kinds of things, but only if they are open minded and eager to try. "You can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink"

[–] Butler_crosley 0 points (+0|-0)

Luckily she understood it and signed. We're actually filing taxes separately this year to get her lower payments.

[–] CDanger 1 points (+1|-0)

"These millennials aren't getting married and having kids! What's wrong with them?" Gee, I wonder why.

[–] [Deleted] 1 points (+1|-0)

Until family law is changed I don't see any hope for marriage. That isn't even getting into the mess that modern dating is. Huge issues there as well.

[–] CDanger 1 points (+1|-0)

This is part of how the west self destructs. Boomers are in denial and think the problem is just with the youth and think we can just replay the "good old days" script that worked 50 years ago without any updates to current conditions. And then we have the deluded leftists who want to destroy absolutely everything about the past (even those things that worked really well in the past, would probably work well now, and are worth saving) but can't even come up with a coherent story about what a man or woman is.

Both miss the obvious reality and are stuck fighting the last war.

[–] [Deleted] 1 points (+1|-0)

Love the entitlement of females.

Sounds like this guy found a real winner. Why even bother getting married? You're just their meal ticket.

[–] Dii_Casses 1 points (+1|-0) Edited

Conversely, why on earth did she marry someone that would be drawing lines around what he isn't taking responsibility for? Either accept her baggage, or stop dating her. You don't up the ante.

[–] CDanger 2 points (+2|-0)

When you marry somebody, you are marrying:

  • Their family
  • Their past
  • Their present
  • Their future

Make sure you consider all of the ramifications of that. Do people not spend even one minute to consider this and the consequences? This is a package deal. You can't pick and choose which parts of them you want and don't want.

Does this dude not consider the fungability of money? If they're going to run separate finances and she uses her money to pay for the loans, she won't be able to afford to go on the vacation that you can easily afford. If you run finances combined, her and your money gets dumped into the same pot, and it's not like you're doing accounting to see which dollar went where. If you do, then you're back to running separate finances. See above for how that turns out.

Moral of the story, make sure you're marrying the right person. Nothing else will really save you if you're not. Things like prenups and communication can help, but don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Those are just bandaids that won't get you out of situations with really serious damage.

[–] [Deleted] 0 points (+0|-0)

Well who knows how much of this story is missing or what she told him upfront (maybe she lied).

She states she "hasn't been working for years" and has "no idea how she will pay back these loans".

Um, get a job?

[–] Dii_Casses 1 points (+1|-0) Edited

Hey if a woman wants to be a housemaker, I can't fault her for that. Probably should have thought about that before taking out some student loans, but mistakes happen. Better this than a kid from a prior relationship.

But questions like how that loan is going to get paid and what she's going to do with that alleged education is something that needed to be discussed in depth ahead of time. At minimum she bears that particular responsibility, even if we give her the maximum benefit of the doubt and assume she is perfect and blameless in everything else.