By Kate Richlin-Zack
Someone asked me the other day if salary was ever on my list of dating criteria. Truth be told, it’s in the top five. But it’s not because I had visions of being a trophy wife who spends her days sipping martinis over lunch with my girlfriends or attending back-to-back pilates classes (though that does sound nice). In all my previous experience, money has always, on some level, caused problems in my relationships. The severity of the problem was often directly proportional to the amount of money we didn’t have at the time and I don’t think I’m the only one who’s had that experience. Living paycheck to paycheck is never fun.
Before I go any further on this topic, there’s an important point that I need to clarify because I if I don’t, I just know the hate mail will be flooding my inbox. There’s a difference between being broke because of a temporary hardship and being broke because of a pattern of lazy behavior.
Guys who are broke because of a temporary hardship are not the type of guys I’m talking about here. I’m not referring to guys who are broke because they went back to school to better their career or took time off from their job to care for their dying grandmother. These are actually the kind of guys you should hitch your wagon to because not only are they going places but when you’re sick and dying, they’ll feed you soup and read you stories, like something out of The Notebook. Bonus points if he looks like Ryan Gosling. Let me reiterate: I’m not referring to these guys.
This entire column focuses on, for lack of better terms, freeloaders and deadbeats who are broke because of a pattern of shoddy employment. You know exactly who I’m talking about and hopefully you’re not dating one of them (for my guy readers out there, I hope you’re not one of them): The 30-something happily unemployed college dropout with bad credit who lives at home with his parents and owes an obscene amount of back taxes.
Those are the guys I’m referring to here. If you find yourself dating someone who falls into this category, I strongly suggest you do yourself a favor and get rid of him before you end up living with his parents too. Here’s why…
Got a Kate-
