Should I Tell My Boyfriend to Shut Up?

Hello!

My husband and I are so close to having a 20% deposit for our family home. However, with the prices of houses being so ridiculously high right now, he wants to wait and meanwhile put our house deposit into shares in the hope that we will have more than enough money in a couple of years. Should I listen to my husband or tell him to shut up?

Willa

Hi Willa,

My first thought is to tell him to shut up.

My second thought is to get him talking. Here are some clarifying questions you might want to ask:

“You reckon the property market is too high and due for a fall. Why wouldn’t that be the same situation for the share market? They’re both just assets, right?”

Whatever he answers, follow up with this:

“No one can predict what’s going to happen in the share market, or the property market, in the next few years. It could go up, down, or sideways. That being the case, let’s run some scenarios now and see how we’d deal with them:

“What would we do if our shares tank 50%?”

(Wait to get his response. “It won’t happen” is not the right answer. Ask him how he’d feel watching your deposit cut in half. Would he hold his nerve?)

“What would we do if the property market increases while we’re risking our savings in the share market?”

(Again, wait to get his response.)

And, finally, hit him with this: “Are you unsatisfied with what we can currently afford?”

It sounds like that is the root of the problem … and there’s no shame in that at all. In a rampant debt bubble, young people starting out have to make trade-offs. Just make sure you’ve thought them through.

And that’s going to require a lot of talking, and thinking!

Scott.