Vetting your sweetheart

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, a Purdue University expert recommends the marriage-minded conduct some
pragmatic due diligence before engagement rings find their way onto fingers.

It’s widely known that financial
problems undermine many a marriage. To that end, Sharon Burns, an associate professor of consumer sciences and retailing,
suggests looking for bad habits before they wreak havoc. Not easy to do during such a passionate time, maybe, but still wise.
Here they are:

–Your sweetheart has borrowed lots of money from you once or has borrowed from you more than once.
This can signal they’re living above their means or managing money poorly.

–He or she buys lots of the latest
clothes, gadgets, cars and other luxuries. Big spending can reveal their needing a crutch to make them feel better and, ultimately,
personal insecurity or lack of discipline.

–Your love needs financial help from family or friends. “Mature
adults support themselves,” Burns says.

–They pay for normal living expenses with credit cards and then
don’t pay the bill in full at the end of the month, a “sure sign of disaster ahead."

–They can’t
hold down a job. In a normal economy, you should wonder if they’re lazy or lack self discipline.

Love is great, Burns says; blind love isn’t.

What are your thoughts on her advice?
Anything you wish you’d known before tying the knot?