Felipe - Whom you choose to marry is the biggest decision you will likely ever have to make in your life. Treat it with such importance. This is a decision that you will either live with the rest of your life, or will haunt you for the rest of your life.
Rich
+1
Felipe,
I am the mom of two young adults. My 21 year old has no where near your wealth, he's a jr in college and working while studying is hard for him so we encourage him to work less, study more.
Anyhoo, this is some of the advice I've give them.
1) 21,22, 23 are your formative years. It's really the time where you are discovering what YOU like and will be. Now I know there are folks who fell in love with their h.s. sweetie but if that's not you spend some time figuring out what brings you joy.
2) Take money out of the equation. very hard to do but try and figure out the underlying CHARACTERISTICS of the person. for example, when someone gets into a tight financial spot does he/she sit back, ask for a loan and then whine or do they get to figuring out how handle the emergency. One thing I love about my 24 year old, boyfriend will work. right now He's focusing on getting his own apartment, which in center city Philly can be a challenge.
3) take money out of the equation part two. skip the financial discussions for your "fiancee". why would a girlfriend need to know this information.
4) Now I disagree with some of the other posters in that financial/spending habits can and do change. I absolutely have a different attitude about money now that I am 55 then I did when I was 25. My late husband and I were wildly different. He was a better saver and I was a better shopper. our combination worked wonderful for us because we had similar goals and we supported each other's strong areas.
For example, my husband definitely let me spend the family money. on vacations, He knew that I am a bargain hunter extraordinaire. when we took vacations you better believe I got the best prices for flights, hotels and activities.
He was into the financial planning so that's where I let him excel.
Now my son's very much suffer from "long term itis". It's really hard for them to understand saving for retirement when they have many short term goals (own place, travel, girls). they both just recently got jobs that offered 401K's but I had to fight with them to get them to save at least 3%.
Enjoy your twenties,
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