Would you marry someone who had a lot of bad debt?

Daddy's Girl

I don't think I would hold it against him if I loved him enough to marry him. However, this would be addressed with a plan in motion on how to recover and be financially responsible for our future long before marriage. And we would have separate financial profiles.

Voodoo

Well considering that I have bad debt myself, heck yes I would. In fact I just married someone with bad debt 2 months ago, hehehehehe.

Rae Rae

Is this individual worth your time and effort to help get out of debt?

Helicreature

Of course, if I loved them and they loved me. I happened to marry someone solvent - but if he hadn't been, I wouldn't have let my soul mate go for the sake of facing and solving a problem together.

03724

You getting married to someone with debt? Well, have fun.

Lilmama

No, because they have shown that they are not good with money and if you get married you whole marriage you will be worried about having enough money or how will you pay off that large amount of debt. His debt problem wil be your debt problem after you are married.

Ramy

Ms. GTO

No. Why should THEIR problem become YOUR problem? You shouldn't have to pay for stuff they did before they met you.

Jess4rsake

Hell no! It would indicate that person lacked good judgment , adequate financial resources and/or self control.

WOWZA!

I don't think so...I'd want them to start working on it before we got married. Once you're married, their debt is your debt.

freakboynv2008

nope. they would have to clean it up first.

His mommy

I'm going through this myself. It's not going to happen.
Sometimes is shows a lot about their character.
Sometimes they don't care to live up to their word in their personal life (hence bad repayment of debt), they don't care about responsibility.
They think by avoiding their debt that they can ignore it, but the truth is it always comes back to bite them in the ***. And when you're married to them, it will bite you in the *** too.
Not to say every situation is like that, but most.

Do you want a house someday? Cars? Financial freedom? Not living paycheck to paycheck? No, I can't marry someone that hasn't been responsible with their debt.

Smiley

That would be a hard decision. I think I would postpone the marriage until the debt was starting to clear up. No one really understands what bad debt is about until they are trapped in it. That is a question I would ask myself, do I want to be put into a position, not being the debtor, of being in the way of all this debt.

Of course what people call debt is perspective. I would look at how long will it take to pay off debt. Most look at big numbers, $50k in debt, with a $60k job, should be able to pay that off in a year, no more than two (which is how people get in debt in the first place), but when you consider all the stuff that goes on, even with a $60k job, it will probably take more like six years to pay that off after you factor living expenses and such, and that is only the beginning.

You will probably want to buy a house some day, and all the other big ticket items people want to get as they progress in life. When that time comes, it will be hard to find a bank that will want to finance you, and if they do, you will pay points that sum up to thousands, and hundreds of thousand in interest just for those extra points. Just look at the mortgage calculator, and put in say $150k for the house (not going into the specifics of money down). Then figure that most are getting around 5-7%. Now add some points, and now you are in 8-11%, and see what the difference comes out to. That is the expressed "penalty" you will pay to be with someone in debt right now.

Things can change, and often hitting bottom changes people. It forces them to start making good decisions. Unfortunately it often takes years and a lot of hard times just to learn the lessons of keeping and servicing debt. I would try to forego it unless you can see that there light at the end of that bad tunnel, and you can see that your partner is not gliding back into that form of bad financial judgment.

chelsea19622000

Jon's girl

Me , if you love someone enough then it conceurs all but there is alot of tention and stress involved whenit comes to money in normal relationships anyway if you can handle double stress go for it

HDRIDER

No way. Be ready for a life of misery!

Susan

it will become your bad debt - you sure you want that to follow you for years to come?

munkeroos

For me it depends. Are they still paying off bad debt from stupid mistakes they made years and years ago. Is it a solid plan that is going to work?

Are they still incurring bad debt as time goes on and throwing caution to the wind?

In the first scenario - I would marry, but would probably postpone marrying until the debt is at a reasonable amount.

In the second scenario, I don't think I could be with someone who is careless about their finances and throwing around money they don't have.

huckleberrymoe

At 33 helll no! At 23, dumb and in love... yeah probably.

Rocky

In todays environment, you need to understand what bad debt can do to you. Not just that you will equally share the debt, but it is getting more and more difficult to do anything with much debt, bad or good. I have real estate holdings (many) and it is very hard to find people who can even qualify to rent a property (I dont want someone who cant pay his/her bill either, because eventually that person wont pay me either. My close friend is in new home construction and the last 15 applicants could not qualify to buy because the banks have raised the credit scores righer than in previous times. So be careful. At this point you may still be in the logical state of mind, but later any decision will likely be founded only in emotion.

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