Life Coach and Counseling psychologist Benjamin Zulu is advising young people against starting ‘doing developments’ while they are still at the girlfriend/boyfriend stage.
Zulu notes that starting businesses or pooling resources and setting up investments at that stage is basically “doing the wrong thing at the wrong time”.
“You’re courting the worst kind of pain and let down. You’re building your house on sand,” cautions the life coach.
His advice for those eager to invest together as a couple is that; “first get married and then start investing.”
According to Zulu, when at the boyfriend/girlfriend level, it is not a guarantee that that relationship will turn into marriage, hence the reason no such key decisions should be made.
“Treat everyone as a candidate, not your partner, until you marry them. Keep all your investments in your name or partner with your family members or other friends if necessary,” he advises.
“The strong emotions and the sweet chemistry of new love can tempt you to overtrust and get ahead of yourself. Business and anything involving money introduce other dynamics into a relationship and it requires a level of trust and stability in a relationship that is almost impossible to be sure of if you’re just dating. It’s an imprudent risk and most wise people prefer to defer partnerships with lovers to after getting married,” he adds.
The risk with investing together when not yet officially a couple is that a common problem in business like money losses or issues with staff or just differences in management styles, can lead to a strained relationship, and we all know how issues can end.
“Better to try these things when you’re married so you can be real and let the right person perform the right roles without the need to please,” notes Zulu.
Would you start a business/investment with someone not yet officially married?
