Like many adults nowadays, this thirty-one-year-old man has debt. Sixty-seven thousand dollars worth, to be exact– which is tied to his college education, his car, and a small portion of credit card usage.
Now, he has been making regular monthly payments for all of his debt areas. Even with those payments, though, it will still be many decades until he is completely debt-free.
According to him, though, his twenty-nine-year-old fiancée is in a very different debt-free boat. Well, that was not always the case.
Apparently, his fiancée did receive a few scholarships that were able to help with college tuition. However, she was still forced to take out a few student loans over the years.
She also got a new car because her last one was in various accidents while parked and did get stuck in a high-spending period during her early twenties.
More specifically, his fiancée reportedly went through a manic period and nearly ran up her credit card through shopping.
Since then, though, he claims that his fiancée has worked her tail off– spending a lot of time on finally getting her finances in order. She worked multiple side jobs on top of her normal full-time job and was able to pay off all of her debt.
On top of that, his fiancée has continued making a ton of extra payments on her mortgage and now has close to three hundred thousand dollars in investments and savings.
“I am very proud of her for everything she has done,” he said.
Drobot Dean – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
If you could not have guessed from the title “fiancée,” though, the couple is obviously now engaged. And because of that, they are planning on finally moving in together.
Apparently, this was not possible before since his fiancée had a roommate, and her lease needed to end before they could start living together.
The only obstacle, though, was that his fiancée really wanted him to be debt-free before their marriage.
So, they ended up choosing a wedding date that is three years from now, and the distant date works out for basically everyone involved– their families included.
“Some of our family is out of the country and needs to save [to travel to the wedding], so the wedding will be on our seventh anniversary– both of our favorite numbers,” he explained.
And his fiancée did not just set this goal without making a well-thought-out plan to achieve it, either. In fact, she actually pulled out a spreadsheet containing all of his debts and outlined a course of action.
Apparently, his fiancée pointed out how if he put the entirety of his paychecks toward his debts every month– minus about two hundred dollars of “fun money”– then he would be debt-free by the wedding.
Of course, though, he could not live on only two hundred dollars a month. But his fiancée had already thought through that part, too. She generously offered to cover literally everything– including their mortgage payment, bills, food, insurance, pet care, date nights, and vacations– until he was debt-free.
Then, during the last bit of time before their wedding, she claimed they could both aggressively save for a nice honeymoon. And after they return home as a married couple, they could then simply focus on taking out their mortgage and getting his savings “up to snuff.”
Rather than accepting his fiancée’s offer on the spot, though, he decided to take some time to think it over. And the following day, he went back to his fiancée with a counteroffer.
Apparently, he asked his fiancée to pay off his debts now using her savings. Then, in a year and a half, he would pay her back in full.
“And since I wouldn’t also have to be paying interest, we would put a bigger dent in the mortgage and still stick to the timeline,” he reasoned.
His fiancée did not seem very happy with his idea, though, and claimed that she would also have to take some time to think about it first.
Now, she has not told him her final decision on his proposition yet. But while drinking a beer with some friends recently, he decided to casually mention the situation to get an outside perspective.
And to his surprise, his friends actually called him a downright jerk. They claimed that they would do absolutely anything to get a two-year offer like that from their partner in order to become debt-free.
On top of that, his friends pointed out how even if he did pay her back, he would still be taking away twenty percent of her savings for a year and a half.
So now, he has been pretty confused about what to do. Moreover, he has been left wondering whether asking his fiancée to just pay back the debt now instead of “living through her weird debt payback plan” makes him a total jerk.
Whose plan do you think is more reasonable? Since it is his debt, should it be his paychecks that pay it off? Would that help prevent the possible margin of error that could happen if he plans to pay his fiancée back in a year and a half, or does it make no difference? Do you think he was a jerk for bringing that counteroffer to his fiancée?
You can read the original post on Reddit here.
If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.