How Learning To Invest Completely Changed One Couple’s Life
According to a recent study we conducted in partnership with Twine, a saving and investing app by John Hancock, only a quarter of 1,000 women in long-term relationships said they are investing with their partner, with many chalking it up to not feeling like they had the time or funds to invest. The reality is, though, choosing to save with a long-term partner doesn’t have to be a stress-induced decision. That’s why we teamed up with Twine to tell the story of a real couple who made the choice to invest, together, and how it changed their lives forever.
The day our HR manager handed me a bulging booklet filled with 401(k) plan options, I had no idea which box to check. I had barely started adulting, and a family — let alone retirement — was years off in the future. The one thing I did know was that I wanted whatever money I invested to be safe. So, not fully understanding how retirement accounts worked, and too embarrassed to admit that I needed more time to do some research, I simply checked one of the plans that said it was “diversified” and “low risk” and headed back to work.
Over the next few years, savings and retirement rarely came to mind: My money and I were busy doing other things, namely, paying rent, eating out with friends, and traveling. And when my now-husband Jeff and his money joined our relationship, our money teamed up for things like rent on a new, shared place, furniture, and more traveling. We didn’t have a clear idea of what we’d need our money for in the future, so inevitably, we spent it in the present.
We lived together for a few years before getting married, which is when the need to start saving and investing snuck up on us, seemingly out of nowhere. We’d moved back to the States shortly after getting married and started looking for a home, but the bank quickly denied our mortgage. During that same period, we also found out that we were expecting our son Hugo, and my mother also announced she would be working into her retirement because her government job was eliminated just a few months short of her vesting period, taking her pension with it.
