He asked, and I said …

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I’ve been calling my boyfriend, Mr. WRI, even though we haven’t married yet. That’s why whenever I talk about finance, it’s my own personal finances, which doesn’t include Mr. WRI’s assets.  We’ve been together for almost three years. We’ve been talking about getting married and early retirement. I knew he was going to ask me anytime.

Mr. WRI bought a ring from a local diamond shop that sponsors our university’s basketball team. The shop had an engagement advisor who hooked Mr. up for The Shooting Game at one of the timeouts. Mr. asked me to rebound the ball for him.

The rules of the game were that there are three boxes and one of the boxes had a gift card to the Diamond shop. If Mr. made a lay-up, a free throw, and a three-pointer, then he was guaranteed to get a prize. I didn’t know one of the three boxes had a hidden engagement ring. Mr. WRI made all three  shots. And he found the ring on his first try.

It is one thing to rebound for him, because I don’t mind being on the court, (I wasn’t nervous at all), but it is another thing after he kneeled down and asked.  All the attention was on me. I was shocked.

He asked me to marry him and I said “Yes”. 

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It was very cool that the 8000 fans were chanting his name. We went back to our seats and a lot of people came up to congratulate us. Mr. WRI did great.

How we met:

In 2012 after a series of terrible break ups, I was playing a lot of badminton. Playing four times a week wasn’t enough.  I signed up for the university’s gym membership for employees for more badminton. That was where I saw Mr. the first time. I thought he was very friendly but slightly depressed as if he’s been divorced. It turned out, he only came to play badminton after his 10-20miles run. So he’d look a bit “beaten” :p.

It was our turn to be partners for a match. I was getting frustrated that Mr. kept cueing up the birdie  for the opponent to smash it on us. So, I coached him. I told him “you are tall, you are powerful, when the birdie comes high at you, you step up and SMASH smash smash, and KILL kill Kill”. He took my advice and we won by a large margin. He’s tall, but I guess he didn’t hear people describe him as “tall” and “powerful” very often. 🙂

We met again, he asked me out. I thought it was as “friends”, but then I realized he was really into me romantically. I did what all other girls would do. I checked out our horoscopes, Chinese and western horoscopes, etc. 🙂 But what really made it work for us is open communication. He is truly a nice guy. We get along very well.

Financial compatibility:

  • Frugal mentality: Mr. WRI is a not as frugal as I am.
  • Debts:  he manages to have no debts – no mortgage, no student loan, and no consumer debt. I have mortgage, rental, and student loan.
  • Investment strategy: he’s 100% cash (other than a little bit of interest from his bank, he earns very little out of his 25 years of savings). Versus me, I diversify 50% rental property and 50% stocks and cash.
  • Spending:  We shared costs for all of our vacations, so we’d get to go to a lot more places than if he was the only one who’d pay for everything. We have our splurges.
  • Cost of engagement ring: Being financially crazy, I couldn’t help asking Mr. thr price of the ring. I was floored that it was five figures – 1.5 carats ideal cut, colorless, flawless. He did pretty well, although I think he spent way too much. I’d rather he’d buy me a beat up house for me to fix up!? 🙂

The big day:

We haven’t set a date yet. I still have braces, so I want to wait for my teeth/health to be perfect before making arrangements.

Our up and coming trip: Cozumel, Mexico. Some of the things on our bucket list: snorkeling at our resort every day, Mayan tour, swimming with dolphins, stingray beach, jeep tour, biking. Although, I’d be perfectly happy to just get out of the cold weather and the snow.

Well, that’s it. My weekend was like a wonderful dream. :p How was your weekend? Did you get get hit with the snow storm like we did?

25 Comments

  1. Congrats on your engagement Vivianne!

    I’m still single, hoping I will find what you have one day! Best wishes. 🙂

  2. Happy news. Best wishes for you on your engagement. I’m sure this past weekend is one you’ll remember for a long, long time. Congrats!

    • Thanks. I’m sure too that we’ll remember this for a long time. Mr. was a super brave guy having to proposed in front of 8000 people. 🙂

    • Hihi, we have some video footage and Its been fun watching it and reliving the moment. I’m still ecstatic.

  3. Congrats! My wife and I went snorkeling every day of our honeymoon. One of our favorite things to do and something we never get tired of! Best wishes to both of you!

    • Ever since we’ve discovered snorkeling and how good it is. We are completely hooked. It’s just like watching the fish in the pond, but you get to be so close to it.

      How long can you hold your breath?

      Mr. And I like to do breath-holding competition and I win most of the time. 🙂
      I still can’t breathe through the tube.

  4. Congrats on the engagement, Vivianne. Thats great news and wishing you and your fiance the best and a lifetime of happiness.

    cheers
    R2R

  5. Congrats! I wish you two all the best.

    You’ll love Cozumel. We were there a year ago and I’d love to go back.

    • I’ve heard so many great things. I just can’t wait to get out of this cold sluggish weather. I want some hot sun, warm water, and great Mexican food. 😛

      With the recent Zika Virus affecting pregnant women is a real concern. I’ve heard airliners are letting people postponing their trip. We are not pregnant, just to clarify. I’m emailing the CDC to see if how long the virus stay in the body. We might have children someday and I don’t want the virus to affect our future Little WRI :).

      We are not canceling our trip. We will bring extra insect repellents.

  6. Hey Vivianne. Congrats and the Engagement. Wishing you and your fiancé the best!! That’s wonderful news and hope you 2 stay Healthy and Wealthy forever! It’s gonna be easier building wealth together so that’s awesome.. 🙂 hehehe…
    Keep us updated. Cheers.

    • Yeah, the power of two will be make the earning soaring while we’d save so much on cost of living.

      I was jokingly said to Mr. that I couldn’t wait to get my hands in his savings to invest all of it. Hahah. 🙂 He’s not going to go for it. The longer the people are in the workforce, the harder they work, the harder they would hang on to whatever they make, and the less risk they can tolerate. So, I’m totally understand. Beside, it’d be good that I can invest 100% of my earning knowing Mr. Is sitting on a bunch of cash? 🙂

  7. Wow, I’m so happy for you!!!

    You guys really deserve all that you guys have been together for and hope to hear about some of the news more in the near future.

    Congrats Vivianne!!!

    • Thank you for your wishes. Still no plan yet. It’ll probably be complicated. I’m hoping to simplify the process a little bit. 😛

  8. Oh ho…looks like I missed the party! Hey WRI, super congrats on the awesome news. My heartfelt best wishes for a wonderful future together. You have conquered many obstacles before this nice event. Now it is time to relax a bit and enjoy the many many wonderful moments to come in the future!

    • Thank you. The party is still there, I still haven’t wrapped my head around the thought of being “tied down” to this one person :). It’s a weird feeling. I know I want to be with mr, but it seems like from this point forward, I’d have to make decisions that would affect two persons. It’s no longer just “me”, it’s “us”. It’s the weirdest feeling, nonetheless, I’m exciting to be on this journey with Mr.

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