Monday, August 09, 2004
Sharing Debt
Last weekend I went home and had dinner with my family. We had a discussion about me spending an extra year in school and in Waterloo to do my Masters. Doing my masters could mean delaying the idea of finding a job and paying off my OSAP debt. Or... I could start work and then do school part-time. Anyway... in telling my brother my decision, he said, "What's the rush? You have your whole life to work. Focus on school."
Not wanting to increase the amount of school debt I already have, I am eager to work when I'm done school. But my brother made a comment that shocked me. He told my mother that I'm worried about paying off my debt because I want to get married. WHA?!?
But it got me thinking...would I want to enter into a marriage with debt? And if so, would it be shared debt between us or would it by my personal debt? So I asked my bf what he thought about that and she was eager to share the debt (perhaps because I once joked that if he married me, he would have to marry my debt as well.. hehe), but I disagreed. I would never want to enter a marriage with school debt hanging over my head and expect paying it off to be a shared effort.
I guess to me, it's somewhat of an acheivement to be able to pay my own way through school and having somebody help me with that debt takes away from my own sense of accomplishment. I know that when you are married, sharing debt becomes a normality but when you are starting off a marriage, would you want to take that debt with you? And if so, do you want to share it with your partner...or would you be offended if your partner didn't want to share it with you?
Not wanting to increase the amount of school debt I already have, I am eager to work when I'm done school. But my brother made a comment that shocked me. He told my mother that I'm worried about paying off my debt because I want to get married. WHA?!?
But it got me thinking...would I want to enter into a marriage with debt? And if so, would it be shared debt between us or would it by my personal debt? So I asked my bf what he thought about that and she was eager to share the debt (perhaps because I once joked that if he married me, he would have to marry my debt as well.. hehe), but I disagreed. I would never want to enter a marriage with school debt hanging over my head and expect paying it off to be a shared effort.
I guess to me, it's somewhat of an acheivement to be able to pay my own way through school and having somebody help me with that debt takes away from my own sense of accomplishment. I know that when you are married, sharing debt becomes a normality but when you are starting off a marriage, would you want to take that debt with you? And if so, do you want to share it with your partner...or would you be offended if your partner didn't want to share it with you?
