“I’ve always admired how kind and thoughtful my fiancé is. We’ve been together for three years, and things have always been smooth. Last week, I got promoted at work and received a pay raise.

My fiancé congratulated me, but then said, “We’ll put it all into our joint account. I’ve been eyeing that new motorcycle.”
It caught me off guard. I told him we weren’t getting a joint account. His face fell. He took out his phone and, after some hesitation, showed me something that made my stomach drop—his savings account had a balance of zero.

He admitted he didn’t have any savings and had even borrowed money from a friend to buy my engagement ring.
I was stunned. How could someone who always seemed responsible and confident be in this situation? I want to support him, but this feels like a massive issue to navigate. How do we build a future together if I can’t trust him to handle money?”