Why you should never set out to marry rich

[street]

I actually never thought I would ever get married. I was in my late 20's and she was also. A blind date by friend of both of us but didn't know each other. Anyway I had a good saving started and she didn't have much but did have everything a home needed as for furniture and such.

Went together for about 5 months and got married and things worked out great. She is a go getter worked harder than I did in her work so we both had the drive to make things work.

The next year her and I built our home together from the ground up slaving side by side with each other till our dream home was complete. Next year had our only son and it has been quit the journey.

One thing I will never forget that came from my wife. She was picked for jury, and they questioned her before. They asked Her, what was the surest thing she ever did in her life. She said, marrying my husband, I knew it was right and would last. When she told me that a few years ago it meant the world to me.

 

[jollystomper]

In college, I saw lots of "dating rich" going on - perhaps with some hope of "marrying rich" - as, at my Ivy League school, there were more than a few people from well-known families, or from rich overseas families. When I started DJ'ing campus parties, there would always be a noticeable influx of people, predominantly women, hoping to find a rich date, and/or under the belief that anyone who graduated from that school would eventually be well-off .

Before DW and I became a couple, I was to take her on a weekend date off-campus that was going to cost money. I knew that at least 2 other guys who were millionaires, or from multi-millionaire families had also offered to take her to the event. Due to a payroll screw-up with my campus job, I did not have the money to take her, unless I borrowed it from someone. Instead of doing that, I told her I just did not have the money, and understood if she wanted one of the other guys to take her. Instead, to my surprise and joy, she said "well if you can't go, why don't we just get food from the dining hall and have a picnic that day". That is when I knew that, despite the attention she was getting from richer guys, "dating rich" was not something she cared about. Lucky me .

 

[athena53]

I told her I just did not have the money, and understood if she wanted one of the other guys to take her. Instead, to my surprise and joy, she said "well if you can't go, why don't we just get food from the dining hall and have a picnic that day". That is when I knew that, despite the attention she was getting from richer guys, "dating rich" was not something she cared about. Lucky me .

Definitely a keeper!

When you are young and dumb you marry for lust and fun.

I married because my biological clock was screaming at me! A friend introduced us; he worked with her husband and had the appearance of being rich. Ha. "The beach house" he always told people about on the NJ shore was owned by his sister, a hugely successful entrepreneur. He did go deep-sea fishing off a Bertram yacht but it was chartered at great expense. All his clothes were from Brooks Brothers and his suits were Hickey-Freeman but he was in debt up to his eyeballs.

Silly me- I married him anyway and spent a lot of $$ rescuing him from bad decisions. It ended in flames 13 years later but shortly after we married his mother died and he put a large chunk of his inheritance into a down payment on our house. We sold at a nice profit and I had enough to buy another and start over. And I got DS out of it. Fortunately, DS has adopted my (mostly) frugal habits.

It gave me a healthy skepticism of any guy who APPEARS to be rich.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Instead, to my surprise and joy, she said "well if you can't go, why don't we just get food from the dining hall and have a picnic that day".

Umm, did it suddenly get dusty in my living room? Why are my eyes welling up?

 

[Koolau]

Umm, did it suddenly get dusty in my living room? Why are my eyes welling up?

And I thought it was just me. Great story. Street too!! Lots of good stories here.



I'm so blessed to have DW for almost 54 years!

 

[jollystomper]

When the young wife and I met, I was 21 and she was 19. We married 4 years later. Neither one of us had any money. We just celebrated our 40th anniversary and everything we have now has been a joint enterprise.

Congrats!

 

[FIREd]

When I met my now ex-wife we were both in graduate school, working towards the same degree. When we got married, we had similar jobs (same title, same salary more or less). Neither one of us had much to our name at the time. When we divorced we split everything 50/50.

But I have a net worth 2 orders of magnitude greater than my current partner's. We keep separate home and separate finances, and we both like it this way. Marriage makes no sense to me anymore anyway. I have however decided to add my partner to my will, because it feels like the fair thing to do.