Sunday, January 9, 2011

Am I a bad investment?

Today has been a typical lazy Sunday - sleep in, coffee while reading the news and blogs and then "woman work" aka house cleaning. Now usually woman work goes by pretty quickly because BF and I do it together, but this was my first solo effort. JEEZ it takes a long time. And we have a relatively small place! But, it gave me some good time to think. 

With all the number crunching yesterday, I was (continuing) to think a lot about my debt and how it effects my choices and people in my life. I hope to join my wagon with the BFs here sometime in the semi near future, but I had to think - am I a bad investment? 

Let's look at the facts here: BF is a home owner with zero debt besides the mortgage. He owns his car outright, has been maxing out his 401k since he was 22, and has pretty much continued career stability and growth till he retires. 

My stats aren't quite as rosy. I have about 100k in debt, give or take. I own my car semi outright (its wrapped into a long term interest free loan, but I have the papers. Thanks Mom and Dad!) but lets be honest. The market for used honda civics isn't exactly booming. I currently have a great job and good earning/promotion potential, but the long term outlook is not so strong. (Maybe 10 years). 

I would consider this all to be very straight forward - if we get married, why not just keep completely separate finances? Leave my debt mine, and for the mortgage I would continue to contribute, since I live here too. (unfortunately, student loans are not a tangible item!) But since BF is in the military, we would be moving every 3 years. Luckily, my job is in military support, but not every base is guaranteed to have positions open. 

I generally subscribe to the idea that in a marriage, financial issues all become shared. But in my case, is it really fair to do that? 

My ultimate goal for 2011 is to pay off 10,000 dollars in debt. That is two separate loans with fairly low interest rates (about 7% each), but would bring down my yearly "expenses" to 18,840 a year, which I could easily cover even working at a Starbucks. 

But is that even the point? Is it still a bad idea to link up with someone in such rough financial shape as myself?

How much do finances influence love? 

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