The Barefoot Investor has shared some stern advice after a bride-to-be revealed she was considering breaking up with her fiancé after she discovered his secret debt.
Renata wrote to financial guru Scott Pape saying she was ‘blindsided by love’ before finding out her fiancé accrued a hefty $9,000 debt spending money on Afterpay and Uber Eats over two years, the Herald Sun reported.
‘He consolidated this debt into a loan (at 17.5% interest!) and I only found out when I opened a piece of mail from a bank neither of us use (or so I thought),’ she said.
‘I’m not sure what to do. I’m not going ahead with the wedding now, so we’ve likely lost $10,000 in deposits.
The woman added the couple only have $14,000 in savings and live in a townhouse that she owns and doesn’t know if she should make it work or ‘cut my losses and run’.
But the Barefoot Investor said although the bride-to-be sounded financially savvy – he didn’t know what ‘type’ of person her fiancé was.
He said he was ‘willing to cut him some slack’ but encouraged the bride-to-be to make sure their finances were aligned before making her decision.
‘After all, maybe he racked up the Afterpay and Uber Eats debts wining and dining you?’ he wrote.
Mr Pape said that Renata’s fiancé might have also been ‘blindsided by love’ but could be ‘clueless’ about finances, like many ns.
‘My view? Let’s give love a chance,’ he wrote.
The Barefoot Investor instead suggested the bride-to-be needs to tell her fiancé what she sees in her financial future.
‘Go into all the scary details: a paid-off home, a million-dollar super fund, private schools for the kids,’ he wrote.
‘And then smash him with the following line: “I do not want to marry you if we’re not on the same page financially.”’
The financial whiz claimed she should show her fiancé his investment and savings book, and that based on his reaction she can make a decision whether a wedding is worth her time.
‘If he takes it on board, sets up the Barefoot Date Nights, and starts aggressively paying down his debts, you’ll know your financial values are aligned,’ he wrote.
But the Barefoot Investor said if the woman’s fiancé doesn’t step up she will know what he values.
‘And you can both move on and find people who are your types,’ he wrote.