How Debt Can Destroy a Budding Relationship

Re:How Debt Can Destroy a Budding Relationship by philwelch on Friday September 03, 2010 @09:56PM (#1661761)

If you carry $170,000 of debt without even realizing how much the total amount is, that says something about you, something that may in fact make some people less willing to marry you.

Having hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt is fine. It's a curse of the middle class, at one point or another--a mortgage if not student loans. You're supposed to realize what you're doing when you borrow that kind of money, though. Running up hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt without fully recognizing what you're doing seems irresponsible. You're mentally evading your responsibilities to others.

I can't even comprehend the mindset involved in that. How can you spend years paying for anything (even a car!) without even once trying to keep track of where you stand in terms of paying it off?

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Re:How Debt Can Destroy a Budding Relationship by mortenjorck on Saturday September 04, 2010 @02:30AM (#1662169)

I wonder if it's due in part to an acclimation to residential rent and car leases. I consider myself very financially disciplined, and would never lose sight of the outstanding principal and interest rate of a loan, but I have no idea how much I've paid the landlords of my current rental apartment over the past few years. Like the woman in the article, I don't really fancy thinking about it.

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Re:How Debt Can Destroy a Budding Relationship by philwelch on Saturday September 04, 2010 @04:44AM (#1662329)

That's past expenditure, though. It's not helpful to think about past expenditures too much, because as sunk costs they fundamentally don't matter anymore. It's not useful to cry over spilt milk. OTOH, it's positively uplifting to contemplate the state of having saved thousands of dollars, or having paid down your debts by thousands.

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