Last week’s Maclean’s featured an article titled “What I Wish I’d Done” a shortish article about a guy who, despite being a financial planner, made many a financial blunder during his lifetime. The big “a-ha” moment for me when I read the article was this:
…married couples should own two properties to prepare for the eventual split. “Before you buy RRSPs, have that second property,” he says. “It allows you to have a formal, pleasant divorce.”
My response? Genius! Sure it sounds jaded, but it’s just more realistic to assume that you won’t be with the same person you’re with in your 20′s as in your 60′s, for whatever reason. Why not plan for that likelihood rather than the ideal? That’s why we buy house insurance and life insurance, right? Why not relationship insurance?
Further to this, I don’t think this has to put a dark cloud over your entire relationship (unless you already have an idealistic view of your relationship, if that’s the case, there’s probably no helping you.) Anyway, if you’re in the pragmatism camp like me, let me share my motto “Live every day like you’ll be together forever, but plan your life like you won’t.”
I think this means that you treat your relationship the same way you treat everything else. You enjoy what you have to the fullest, but don’t take it for granted.
And hey, if we don’t get divorced, having extra investment property never hurt anyone.