My Boyfriend is Moving Too Fast

Hi Scott,

I am worried my partner might be doing something silly. I am 23, he is 27, and as a couple we are on about $140k a year -- with $40k in shares, $10k in Mojo, two cars paid off, no debt, no kids. He is thinking of buying his mother’s house for $400k as an investment property. He plans to negative gear it and is rushing to complete the sale before the election. We only have the Mojo money for the deposit. Are we moving too quickly? Could we be worse off in the long run?

Lisa

Hi Lisa,

My advice to his mum is to get an independent valuation before she sells to her son!

Now my advice to you.

What’s interesting is that you talk in terms of ‘we’ -- “we are on $140k a year”, “we only have the Mojo money for the deposit”. Yet your partner sounds like he’s an ‘I’ type of guy.

If you’re truly a partnership, you’ll make decisions as a team.

Personally, I’d never make a major financial decision that my wife wasn’t fully on board with.

That’s not only because we’re a team, but because I respect her opinion. Women tend to have a sixth sense of ‘safety’ when it comes to money that most hunter-gathering blokes don’t have. (Maybe that’s sexist, or maybe I just have an amazing wife.)

Bottom line: if he’s not willing to consult you on your concerns -- and he expects you to put your money in -- then my advice would be to stop thinking about your money as ‘ours’ and more about it as ‘mine’.

Scott